How to Disable Facebook Places Location Tracking 2013

Have you ever bothered to click on the "Places" map on your Facebook timeline? It kind of creeped me out the first time I tried it. It almost felt like Facebook was stalking me.

Hovering my mouse pointer over any of the red dots on the Facebook Places map revealed pictures I had been tagged in at each location, status posts I had made from different places, etc. I had never really thought that Facebook was aggregating all of this geotag data together, and frankly, I'm not crazy about them doing this for me. Depending on your privacy settings, your friends and others may also be able to see this information.

If you don't like Facebook presenting your location information in a scrapbook-for-stalkers format, you can turn it off (sort of). Let's take a look at a few things you can do to remove your location data from the Facebook Places map.


Step 1 - Remove Geotags From Your Pictures Before You Upload Them to Facebook

To ensure that future pictures posted to Facebook and other social media sites don't reveal your location information, you should make sure that the geotag information is never recorded in the first place. Most of the time this is done by turning off the location services setting on your smartphone's camera application so that the geotag information doesn't get recorded in the picture's EXIF metadata. There are also apps that will help you strip our the geolocation information of pictures you've already taken. You might want to try deGeo (iPhone) or Photo Privacy Editor (Android) to remove the geotag info from your photos before uploading them to social media sites.

Step 2 - Disable Location Services for Facebook on Your Mobile Phone / Device

When you first installed Facebook on your mobile phone, it probably asked for permission to use your phone's location services so that it could provide you with the ability to "check-in" at different locations and tag photos with location information. If you don't want Facebook knowing where you are posting something from, then you should revoke this permission in your phone's location services settings area.

Step 3 - Enable the Facebook Tag Review Feature

Facebook recently made an attempt to go from a super-granular privacy settings structure to an ultra-simple one. It now appears that you cannot selectively prevent people from tagging you at a location, however, you can turn on the tag review feature which allows you to review anything you've been tagged in, whether it's a picture or a location check-in. You can decide whether tags get posted before they are posted, but only if you have the tag review feature enabled.

To Enable the Facebook Tag Review Feature:

1. Log into Facebook and select the settings padlock icon next to the "Home" button at the top right corner of the page.

2. Click the "See More Settings" link from the bottom of the "Privacy Shortcuts" menu.

3. Click the "Timeline and Tagging" link on the left side of the screen.

4. In the "How can I manage tags people add and tagging suggestions?" section of the "Timeline and Tagging Settings menu, click the "Edit" link next to "Review tags people add to your own posts before the tags appear on Facebook?"

5. Click the "Disabled" button and change its setting to "Enabled".

6. Click the "Close" link.

After this setting is enabled, any post that you are tagged in, whether it's a photo, location check-in, etc, will have to gain your digital stamp of approval before it's posted to your timeline. This will effectively prevent anyone from posting your location without your express permission.

Step 4 - Limit Who Can See Your "Stuff" on Facebook

Also located in the newly revamped Facebook privacy settings area is a "Who can see my stuff" option. This is where you can limit the visibility of future posts (such as ones with geotags in them). You may choose "Friends", "Only Me", "Custom", or "Public". I advise against choosing "Public" unless you want the whole world knowing where you are and where you've been.

This option applies to all future posts. Individual posts can be changed as they are created or after they are made, in case you want to make something more public or private later on. You can also use the "Limit Past Posts" option to change all of your old posts that might have been "Public" or "Friends of Friends" to "Friends Only".
It's a good idea to check your Facebook privacy settings about once a month as they seem to make sweeping changes on a regular basis that could affect the settings you have in place. Check out our Facebook Privacy and Security section of our site for more guidance.

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How to Hide Your Likes on Facebook 2013

Liking a page on Facebook has become quite a personal statement. Restaurants, shops, sports teams, charities, support groups, you name it, and someone is liking it on Facebook, and those people's friends are probably judging them for it.

Your friends and others can make assumptions about you just by looking at the things you like on Facebook. For instance, say you've just suddenly added likes for 15 different brands of vodka on Facebook. Your friends may begin to wonder if you might be turning into a raging alcoholic based on your new likes. In reality, you we're just liking the pages so you might get some coupons or other free stuff.

No matter what your likes are, you can choose to make a statement and make them public or you can go "off the like grid" and keep all your likes to yourself, so that you don't come home to a surprise family intervention because your Aunt told your mom about the 15 liquor brand likes you just added.

Let's look at what you can do to keep some things you like public while hiding other things that you don't want everyone knowing that you like.

Types of Likes:

Thee are several types of likes on Facebook. If you take a look at your profile, you will see nine different categories: Music, Books, Movies, Television, Games, Sports Teams, Activities, Interests, and Other Pages.

You can control who see's what you like at the category level, but you can't hide individual things that you like. For example, you can decide to show or hide Sports Teams, but you can't hide the fact that you like an individual team.

How to Make Your Likes Private:

1. Log onto Facebook and click on your Timeline.

2. From your timeline, click on "Likes".

3. Click on the "Edit" button on the right side of the screen on the "Favorites" page.

4. You will see nine different like categories on the page (Music, Books, Movies, Television, Games, Sports Teams, Activities, Interests, and Other Pages). Click the blue triangle next to the head and shoulders icon for the category you wish to make private.

5. Click the level of privacy you wish to set for the like visibility of the category. Your options include: Public, Friends, Only Me or Custom. If you want to hide your likes from everyone but yourself, choose "Only Me".


You can choose different restrictions for each of the nine categories but unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, you can't hide the fact that you like individual pages. It's all or nothing for each category. Perhaps Facebook will add more granular privacy controls for likes and you'll be able to hide the fact that you like certain things such as Shi Tzu puppies dressed in eighteenth century clothing, but until Facebook adds this feature you are forced to show all your strange likes or not show any of them.

If you want to learn how to keep other aspects of your Facebook profile on the down low, check out these other articles on Facebook Privacy and Security:


Facebook Safety Tips for Teens
One final note: Facebook is famous for making sweeping changes to how your privacy settings are managed. It is a good idea to periodically check your privacy options about once a month or so to see if Facebook has changed anything. There's always a chance that you may have been "opted in" to something that you would rather be "opted out" of.

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How to check your FACEBOOK notifications with Google Reader

You can check your Facebook notifications in Google Reader, which could be very convenient if you're already a big Google Reader user.

There are many ways to check your Facebook notifications throughout the day. You might use push notifications from your mobile app or perhaps you simply go to Facebook's Web site and see if you have any new notifications.
Another way to check Facebook notifications is to use an RSS reader, like Google Reader. If you're already in Google Reader for most of the day checking your news updates, adding your Facebook notifications might make sense. Here's how: 

Step 1: Go to https://www.facebook.com/notifications and make sure you're logged in to your Facebook account.

Step 2: Copy your RSS link, located at the top of your list of notifications.

Step 3: Click the Subscribe button in Google Reader, paste your RSS link, then click Add.

Step 4: Check Google Reader on the Web or on your mobile app to make sure your Facebook notification feed shows up.

That's it. To see more details of each notification, click on the individual notifications from Google Reader and you'll be taken to Facebook's Web page to see the photo, link, comments, etc.

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How to Market Your Business on Facebook 2013

We all used to think Facebook was for kids; I'm with you I used to think the same thing as well, but it's time to change our thinking. There are many companies using Facebook to market and seeing success in doing so.
Consider the following statistics provided by O’Reilly Media. Between September 2008 and February 2009...

• The number of Facebook users between the ages of 35 and 44 increased by 51%
• Facebook users among the ages 45-54 grew by 47%
• Facebook users ages 26-34 increased by 26%
• More than half of the 140 million Facebook users are out of college

As you can see Facebook is no longer for just college students. Why should you use Facebook as a marketing tool? The answer is easy; you can use Facebook to gain new clients, stay in touch with current clients and promote new products and sales offers. You can also use it to create buzz and PR that is specific about your business.

How do you do this? Facebook offers you many tools, to be successful in marketing your business you must have an understanding of these tools. In this article we will look at two in particular:

• Facebook Pages
• Facebook Groups 

Facebook Pages

Facebook Offers you Facebook Pages. What does that mean? You can use Facebook PAges to create and give your business their own profile on Facebook; the best thing is right now they are free. These pages give your business an identity on Facebook which strengthens your brand. Current customers or even potential customers can become fans of your page and by doing so this allows them to follow you and receive any updates that you post to your page.

The great thing about Facebook Pages is that every time someone becomes a fan of your page all of their friends see that they have become a "fan." This often attracts other followers as well as creates a buzz regarding your business and of course your Facebook Page.

You can use your Facebook Page to not only share your company information, but you can also use it to post photos, videos, applications and messages. Any activity that you perform on your Facebook Page is then broadcast into the mini-feeds of your followers.

When creating your Facebook Page, there are things to keep in mind. You will be given a choice of three options when you start out. You will be asked whether your page is about:

• A Local Business
• A Brand or a Product
• An Artist, Band or a Public Figure

Which are you? Good question. This depends on what you want to promote. Do you want to promote your business locally, do you want to promote your brand or a product or are you working to promote an artist, band or public figure?

Each of these categories will provide you with an opportunity to complete your "basic information", "detailed information" or your "contact information." Each option will provide you with a page that enables you to provide different ways of showing your information. It's important to realize that you cannot edit your page type once you select it, and also remember that the page type that you select will categorize your page with other like pages in that category; this is why you want to make sure you select the correct category to be displayed in.

Your Facebook Page, when done correctly can be used to bring in new customers as well as to help you maintain current customer relationships.

Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups, carry a similarity to Facebook Pages, the difference is they are built around a group of people rather than your business or your brand. You must be a member of Facebook to create a Facebook Group. In order to create a group just login to Facebook and then click on the Groups link in the main menu on the left hand side of the page.

You can use Facebook Groups to create awareness, but they do not have the feature that allows users to become fans, they only become members. The downfall of this is it will not share as much information with friends of "group" members as they interact with the group.

Which One is Right for You?

The question I hear most when it comes to marketing on Facebook is "Laura, do I need a page or a group?" The answer depends on the goal you want to achieve with marketing on Facebook. The truth is you will gain more exposure from a Facebook Page, because it can be seen by unregistered users, but a group page can only be seen by registered Facebook users.

Now, that feature alone should make it easy to decide, right? Wrong. You must also consider that when you send a message to Facebook Page members, they will only receive an update notification, but if you are sending a message to your Facebook Group they will receive the message via their Facebook inbox. If you goal is to be able to communicate in a personal way, the Facebook Group option may be a better fit for you.

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