On Wednesday, Facebook launched its new Places feature, which allows you to tell your friends where you are. As is typical of Facebook, you’re automatically opted in, and if you don’t want to play, you have to take steps to opt out. [For a clarification, see Update 2.0 below.]
In theory, simply not checking in at a location – either via the updated Facebook iPhone app, or through the service’s mobile site – would ensure your whereabouts remain unknown. But Places also lets your friends do the checking in for you. You can be “tagged” as being in a location by a friend who’s also there.
You could also be tagged at a location even if you’re not actually there, which raises all kinds of questions about both privacy and trust . . .
Disabling Facebook Places involves navigating your account’s privacy settings. While Facebook may have made it easier earlier this year to figure out its privacy controls, turning off Places requires you tweak settings in multiple locations. There’s no one “I don’t want to do Places” button.
Here’s what you need to do to opt out:
1. While you’re logged into Facebook, click on Account in the upper right-hand corner of your main page, then choose Privacy Settings. You’ll be at the Choose Your Privacy Settings page.
Note that, from this page, you don’t yet see the word “Places”. To get there, click the Customize Settings link near the bottom.
2. Look toward the bottom of the “Things I share” category on the Customize Settings page and you’ll see two Places-related items.
Click on the drop-down menu for “Places I check in” to change the default of “Friends Only”. This option allows you to designate who can see where you’ve checked in. Your choices are Everyone, Friends and Networks, Friends of Friends, Friends Only and Customize. The last selection lets you get quite detailed, and you can even hide your location from specific people. The dropdown here lets you specify Only Me, the most private setting.
3. Also on the Customize Settings page is “Include me in ‘People Here Now’ after I check in”. If this is enabled, you’ll be listed as being present on a location’s Places page once you’ve checked in. For example, if you’re at the grocery store and you check in on Places, anyone visiting the store’s own Places page will see you’re there. Uncheck Enable if you don’t want this to happen.
4. Still on the Customize Settings page, scroll down to the “Things others share” category. You’ll see “Friends can check me into Places”.
By default, this is set to “Select One”. Click the drop down and choose Disabled to prevent your friends from disclosing your location.
The folks at Lifehacker have created a useful video showing the steps.
If you’re a Facebook user, will you use Places? Or will you choose to opt out?
Update: The Lifehacker item has an update regarding another Places component you may want to turn off:
As commenter Ryan G. points out, your location can be shared with friends’ applications as well. To turn that off, you have to go to a completely different section. Click the “Applications and Settings” link (pictured to the left) and then go to the “Info accessible through your friends” section. Click “Edit Settings” and you’ll see a bunch of boxes. Anything checked is available to Facebook apps that your friends are using. The last checkbox in this section is “Places I’ve visited,” so uncheck that if you don’t want your friends’ apps grabbing your location information as well.
Update 2.0: A Facebook spokesperson objected to the characterization of Places being automatically opt-in. Although the privacy settings indicate that parts of Places are active, they don’t take effect until the first time you check in at a location. Once you do, you’re presented with an opt-in screen as shown below in the iPhone example. (The Web-based version works similarly.)
Once you have clicked that “I Agree” button, the privacy settings I described earlier govern Places’ behavior for your account.
One exception, however, is location tagging. You can be tagged as being in a location by a friend, and you’ll be sent a request to approve the tag. If you don’t respond, the tag notification only shows up on your friend’s page – it’s similar to a status update – and it’s only visible by your friend, and his or her friends. It won’t show up on your page until you OK it.
The fact that the privacy settings appear to apply to a working service – even if you haven’t yet checked in – is confusing. It implies that Places is active, which is worrisome, particularly in the case of friends checking you in at a location on your behalf. However, if you have not clicked that “I Agree” button, you can’t be checked in by proxy.
Juliette,
Are you sure? I tried the service this morning, and I tagged people at a location completely without their knowledge. While it didn’t show up on their wall, it definitely listed them as being present on the location’s page itself.
So, yes, people can check you in at a place without them being there. The person does not need to already have marked themselves there.
Hope this helps.
Keith Whamond
This is very misleading. People cannot list you as being somewhere “even if you are not there” you have to have already marked yourself as being there before someone can “tag you” as also being there.
For example, a friend of mine cannot go to a house of ill repute and falsely click to say I am there. I would have to be at said house, and then the person will have to see a list of his facebook friends who have ALREADY TAGGED THEMSELVES AS BEING THERE. Only then can they tag me as there, and then only if I’ve opted to allow them in my privacy settings.
Nor could I go to a bar and tag someone else as being there too, unless they had already tagged themselves as being there. They could be standing right next to me, but unless they’d gone into facebook and clicked “tag my location” or “check in” I would not be able to alert anyone to their presence.
It’s a silly feature and I’ve disabled it on my phone. However, I thought people should be aware that it’s not STALKING as claimed in this article. Nor can people tag you as being somewhere you’re not. Nor can they tag you even if you ARE somewhere, unless you’ve clicked to give them permission! This headline and article is misleading and fear mongering.
Great article, and good to know.
Paul Greenan
Stamford, CT