Facebook Settings : Does it really work for you?

Here's what I read in an email from Facebook …

"Your timeline: You have settings that help you design how your timeline will appear to others, like hiding things from your timeline. Remember that this only impacts whether those things are visible on your timeline. Those posts are still visible elsewhere, like in news feed, on other people's timelines, or in search results. You can delete your own posts from your timeline or activity log, or ask someone else to delete a post you're tagged in."

Were you aware of this? This clearly means that by making some settings, you might have hidden or blocked some content from appearing on your timeline when viewed by others but those things are still there for people to discover through other means. This is not only interesting but scary for people.

Many a tragic incident have happened where people have tagged other people on stupid photos or written stupid comments on their profiles; things which would rather be forgotten or be kept a forgotten secret. Tragedies include loss of job, broken relationships, misunderstandings and even divorces.

The privacy settings or partial hiding features were a relief for people but this kind of a notification can send ripples across once again. As the world gets paranoid about privacy, our lives are laid bare open on the social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter … not just by us but by our social circles.

So where are we headed to … from closely gaurding our life and activities to making it completely transparent … and probably getting back to closely guarded life in near future.