UK Facebookers - Places will share your location with apps and websites by default

Following my post on Wednesday 25 August - UK Facebookers - Are you ready for Facebook Places? I took a further look at Facebook Privacy settings and discovered that details of the places you check-in to, will be shared with applications, games and websites that your friends use by default. I missed it on first investigation as confusingly this setting is in a different area from the main privacy 'control panel' and is under 'Applications and websites' - more details at the end of this post.

Note that these are applications, games and websites your friends use and not ones you necessarily use, so you may not even be aware of them. How will you know what applications, games and websites will do with your check-in information and who in turn they will share it with? Well, your probably won't. They will be able to share your check-in information with anybody at anytime. In short, you will not be in control of who shares details of your whereabouts and movement and this is the default position. This is different from Foursquare where you can choose how much location information you publish and to whom. You can even check-in 'off the grid' without revealing your location at all.

If you're not comfortable with sharing your check-in information with applications, games and websites you can amend in Facebook by going to Account (top right of page) then Privacy Settings then Edit your settings under Applications and websites. Then look for 'Information accessible through your friends' and select the Edit Settings button to the right. Still with me? You'll then see a screen like the one below and the relevant option is on the bottom right - Places I check in to. If you don't want your check-in information shared with applications, games and websites that your friends use, then uncheck the box.

Whilst you're on this screen you might want to review the other data and information that you are sharing too.