This topic is of particular importance because if you want to make sure that your personal life doesn't mix with professional, you'll want to make sure that your obligation-friends don't see your party pics.

The first thing you need to do to control your photos is make different albums for different topics. Note that your profile and wall albums are automatic, the rest you can make in the Profile > Photos area.

Access your albums through your profile, then create a new album

Once on this screen, you can create a new album by clicking the button labeled as such.

Create an ablum

On the creation screen, enter a descriptive name and details if you wish. The location is just something so you and people will know where the photos were taken (Europe, the Diner, or whatever). The important control here is the Privacy option. Just like in privacy control screen, you can select Customize and choose specific groups of friends.

I'll let my (real) friends and family see this

So now my Mom, my sister, and all my real friends can see these pics, but not my Boss, or those obligation-friends. Piece of cake!

One of the most important things you can ever do on your Facebook account is make groups so you can divide your friends. Think about it: do you want your boss, your mother, and your drinking buddies to all have the same access to the same things?

By grouping your friends into categories like Work, Family, and Friends (actual friends, though I wouldn't call it that :D), you can separate which posts, which activities, and which photos each group can see.

New list means new friend group

First, you click on the "Make new List button on the left side of the screen as shown. If you don't see it, click the "More" button and it should be right there at the bottom.

A pop-up will appear that shows you some of your friends, but the thing you're looking for is at the top where it says "Create New List". Enter a descriptive name (as far as I know, the people in the list won't be able to see the name, but just in case don't enter a name like "People I Hate"). Click on all the friends you want in that group or do a quick search by typing part of a name. Once you're sure everyone is there, then click "Create List" at the bottom.

Just enter a name and go

You're taken to a new page where you can see the activity for just that group. You're done!

Controlling your access by group

The magic customize option

Well, almost done. You still have to go and set your privacy based on the groups.

Go into your settings under Privacy > Profile. You'll see the standard list of permissions for who can see what, but check out that bottom option: "Customize…". That's the one you want.

Another popup will open giving you several advanced controls for managing who can see what. For example, if you feel obligated to "friend" your boss, but don't really want them to see the things you post to your wall, click customize in that group and you'll see something like this:

Who can see this?

Click on "Some Friends" and now you can type the names of specific friends OR the group that you created 🙂 (also note the VERY important function of being able to exclude specific people by name).

Besides making sure that only the right people see the right things, this saves time from having to constantly be adding every single friend to something. This is particularly useful when posting photos (explained next).

So as I'm learning how to use this goofy site that everyone seems so attached to, I'm also learning some of the neat tricks you can use to protect yourself. Today's victory was the "See how a friend sees your profile".

Not surprisingly, as time goes on, Facebook changes this and makes it harder to find. I don't have time for a full update at this time, but as of Feb 2012, go to Account Settings and click the link on the left for "Your profile" (it's small and hard to see, but it's there). Then on the upper right side of the screen you'll see the Veiw as option.

The old way

If you go to Account > Privacy Settings > Customize Settings , you'll see a list of all your privacy settings and who can see what on your page. But up at the very top, you see a buttons labeled "Preview my Profile". Click that and you'll see what your profile looks like. At the top, enter the name of one of your friends to see your page as if you were them.

In privacy settings, find CUSTOMIZE SETTINGS

Then click PREVIEW MY PROFILE

At the top of the page, enter a friend's name

This is very helpful if you want to be selective about who sees what particularly if you take my recommendation to group your friends. You might want to be sure that your obligation-friends can't see what your real friends can see.

Track your kids in real-time online with GPS

Here's a tool for you ultra-paranoid: a GPS watch you can make your kids wear.

Parents can see the location of their child on Google maps by clicking 'where r you' on a secure website or texting 'wru' to a special number. Safe zones can also be programmed with parents being alerted if their child strays outside this zone.

The watch, which is designed in bright colours to appeal to children, can be tightly fastened to a child's wrist and sends an alert if forcibly removed.

Two things to keep in mind before doing this:

1. If you tag kids with monitoring devices, we will be raising a generation of people who don't see a problem with being tagged and tracked. This sets a very dangerous precedent for the future if we are to retain our personal liberties.
2. The company that supplies the information also gets to see where your kid is which creates a new set of questions. What does the company do with all that data? Would they possibly share or sell it? Could they lose it in a data breach?

Gattaca : Ethan Hawke
(See online!)

In the near future, your job and dating prospects are all a factor of your DNA and the quality of your genetics. Much like the risk of people hunting you down online that we have today, this shows how the essence of who you are could be used against you. Some examples:

Spoilers ahead!

• A girl takes a stray hair to the corner DNA lab to check out a guy she's interested in.
• Our protagonist, who's parents decided to let grow naturally in the womb instead of letting the fetus be genetically perfected, has inferior DNA. This prevents him from getting any kind of job better than cleaning toilets.
• Even though people are legally protected from DNA collection, potential applicants who don't "volunteer" a sample are considered unhirable. Though illegal, the discrimination is impossible to prove..
• Desperate people use the DNA of others to borrow identities so they can get things they otherwise couldn't.
• All police searches, checks, investigations, etc. involve checking DNA.

Basically, it's a cautionary tale of what we could become if we let our genetic data become the standard by which we're treated in society.

(Image used under: Creative Commons 2.0 [SRC])

Here's another example of how someone's Facebook profile was used against them (First example here).

"If you are alleging that, as a result of an accident, you have not been able to enjoy life the same way and there is a photo taken after the accident showing you skiing or exercising … that could be relevant," the civil litigation and intellectual property lawyer said in an interview yesterday.

Well duh. If there are cases where people's personal diaries have been subpoenaed, I guarantee you an online record like Facebook is fair game.

(Image used under: Creative Commons 2.0 [SRC])

Whether or not the officer in question really did use excessive force, the main point here is that the things you write about online can come back to haunt you in the most unexpected ways.

Officer Ettienne said he is now being careful to mask his identity on the Web and that he has curbed his tongue because of the acquittal. "I feel it's partially my fault, he said. It paints a picture of a person who could be overly aggressive. You put that together, it's reasonable doubt in anybody's mind."

Even your "private" Facebook or Myspace account isn't so private under the force of a subpoena.

(Image used under: Creative Commons 2.0 [SRC])

This is so wrong, I barely know what to say. I sure hope this trend doesn't start to catch on, because a lot of people would give up the information when they're pressured instead of doing the right thing and refusing.

"Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc." the form reads. But Bozeman isn't simply interested in finding out where to look for potentially embarrassing personal details; the city wants full disclosure, since the form demands username and password information for each.

This is way worse than all those sickening social networking sites asking for your e-mail address password.

Update

Here is the contact information for the relevant people in the city if you want to ask them why they thought this would be a good idea. And just in case someone were to change the form, here's a copy of the original found on their website:

This is for real... they actually expect you to give up your account details!

Government overreach in the UK

This comes from a long string of stories about how bad privacy is getting in the UK. As bad as it's become in the US, apparently our friends out there have it much worse.

What's a 50% data loss for a whole country?

(Image is in the Public Domain)

They had it, they shouldn't have, now they lost it. Same story all over.

The funniest part of this is that they're trying to convince their public that it's a good idea to have a national ID card containing even more data and that they'll be responsible with that data.

Said someone from an anti-ID card group:

"It's inevitably good news for our campaign because it proves to people that this government, and indeed any government, cannot be trusted with this amount of information. For 25 million people this is a catastrophe but it is just a small herald of the national ID scheme which would mean a potential catastrophe for 60 million of us."