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There’s always a question mark hanging over the privacy aspects of Facebook, the social networking tool that has taken over our lives and become an international phenomenon, the likes of which we have never seen before. It has eliminated borders, reduced distances, and made it possible to live our lives in goldfish bowls, in the glare of the voyeuristic public. Of course, we do have the option to share what we want to with just our “friends”, and if you have any sense at all, you would have implemented the privacy options (which keep changing from time to time with no warning whatsoever) that Facebook provides.

The newest cloud on the Facebook privacy horizon is the “Groups” feature; on the surface, it seems to be something that improves privacy and allows you to share news, photos and links with just a small set of friends or family members who are close to you. You don’t have to take the trouble to protect and lock every status message and every photo album you add to your profile – just create groups and post what you want according to who you think should see it. However, there’s a hidden catch that most people who use Groups are not aware of – unlike other Groups on the web like those that Yahoo and other providers allow you to form, Facebook Groups doesn’t have an administrator (the person who created the group is the administrator, but they don’t get to accept or reject new members before they can join). This means that anyone who is a part of the group can add any number of members, with the net result that you have people who may be complete strangers to you in your group. Some privacy this is, huh?

Other problems with the Groups feature in Facebook include the fact that:

 Anyone can add you to any group they form, and unless they label it “secret” – this news appears in all your friends’ news feeds. There are closed and public groups as well, the former lists its members and names publicly while keeping messages a secret while the latter is totally open for anyone to see.

 Any message or link posted to the group comes to your message box, and if there are too many people posting too many messages, well, you get my drift. However, you could edit your settings on the Group page to prune your messages.

The only way to use Groups and protect your privacy is to periodically check the groups that you belong to and all its members, and if some of them seem objectionable to you, then it’s up to you to leave or stay. And a word of caution before I sign off, it’s best to check out any new feature that Facebook comes up with for privacy concerns before you jump right in and begin using it.

This guest post is contributed by Mark Davies, he writes on the topic of Online Masters Degree . He welcomes your comments via his email markdavies247@gmail.com.

Further reading:

Facebook – Helping Students Learn?

Are You Trying To Improve Your Facebook Fan Page?

Facebook’s Domination – Any Cause For Concern?

Facebook Is Taking Some Serious Heat

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