Monday, December 19, 2011

Prep for Facebook’s Timeline Layout: 6 Must-Do Privacy Tweaks




PCWorld.Com - Get ready for your Facebook past to come back with a vengeance; the social network is now rolling out its new profile layout, Timeline, to all users worldwide. Timeline is basically an online scrapbook that displays your Facebook activity in reverse chronological order going back to when you first joined the social network.

This means you and your Facebook friends will be able to peruse your social networking history with just a few clicks. Previously, there was no practical way to view your older activity on Facebook.

If Timeline’s debut has you wondering whether you can hide the embarrassing bits of your Facebook life before your new profile goes live, the good news is you can. But you’ll only have seven days to make any changes to your Timeline before it becomes your default profile.
[Related: Facebook's New Timeline Layout: A Getting Started Guide]

Get Timeline

There are three ways Timeline could arrive on your profile. You can activate it now by visiting Facebook’s Timeline page. You could also wait for Facebook to notify you that Timeline is available and then choose to activate it. Finally, for those who want to resist Timeline as long as possible, you can do nothing and Facebook will eventually move you over to the new look. In each case, you get a full seven days to edit your profile just the way you want it before it goes live. You can also choose to publish your Timeline at any time during the seven-day editing period.

I’ve been using Timeline since September and found it to be an interesting way to revisit all my past Facebook activity. Here’s a quick checklist of five things you’ll want to think about checking on your Timeline before your seven days are up.

Hide Old Posts

 



If you want to get rid of an old status update, photo, article link or like, go to the post on Timeline and hover over its top right corner. Click the pencil icon and select “Hide from Timeline.” If you’re hiding Facebook app activity, such as the Washington Post Reader app, the menu options to hide activity may be different.                             More