The folks behind the Untangle Firewall released an interesting little “bookmark utility” called SaveFace today. If you’re concerned about the assorted Facebook privacy issues and not sure you’ve caught everything, this might be worth a shot.
No install necessary, just drag the little bookmarklet to your browser’s Favorites bar. Then head over to your Facebook page and click the bookmark and turn it loose.
SaveFace sets your privacy settings back to Friends Only, for all the following:
- Contact Information
- Search Settings
- Friends, Tags and Connections
- Personal Information and Posts
Best of all, it’s free. Untangle collects no personal information from you or your Facebook when you use this Bookmark utility.
Small caveat here though: Like any code you pull off of a website, it is up to you to decide if you trust it… I, personally, run the untangle stuff at home so I’ve already invested some level of trust here. But, I’ll also admit that I haven’t the foggiest idea what exactly this critter is doing! It does give some status updates as it runs though, for what that’s worth.
If you’re a JavaScript guy, you can see what’s going on with a review of http://www3.untangle.com/_js/pr.js, as that’s what gets loaded from the bookmarklet (at least, from mine at any rate).
If you have friends (or family) just too bewildered about all the Facebook privacy hoopla you could at least walk them running this thing. They’ll get some protection and won’t have to deal with the headache of researching all the options…
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And then there’s the adblock filters you can use to help block the third-party sites from auto-logging you in using your facebook information.
http://lifehacker.com/5542041/block-sites-from-using-your-facebook-login-with-adblock-plus
So many hoops to jump through. I’ve been gone a few days now and miss the connections with people… but am waiting for FB to change their mind before I go back. Not looking for a workaround, looking for them to believe opt-in is better than opt-out.