By Bianca Consunji

FACEBOOK, currently the most talked-about social network around the world, has got millions of users hooked. Although it started gaining popularity in the Philippines only last year (Multiply and Friendster ruled supreme until recently), more and more Filipinos are joining the Facebook bandwagon.

Possibly the most user-friendly of all the mainstream social networks, Facebook has made it easy for people to share their lives with their network through easily uploaded content.

For instance, one of Facebook's most popular features is the status update: instead of writing a time-consuming blog entry about the goings-on in their lives, people can simply jot off a short note telling others what they're doing, thinking or feeling (such as "Florante wants to curl up and die," a status message that will probably receive numerous comments from busybodies.)

Some people believe their friends are dying to know everything they're up to. But what about the contacts (i.e. your boss, third cousin who lives in Alaska, old classmate from sixth grade) who'd rather not know what you had for dinner?

Security issues

The thing with signing up on any social network is that by agreeing to their terms and conditions, you're basically allowing friends, foes, and complete strangers to peek into your life - and more.

Users raised hell a couple of months ago when word got out that Facebook's terms of service supposedly stated that the company owned the rights to all the content posted on the site - even upon deletion of the account. Panicked users protested, saying that they did not want to be "owned" by Facebook.

The company eventually released a new set of terms and conditions, with founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg explaining on the Facebook blog that people "first need to grant Facebook a license to use that information so that we can show it to the other people they've asked us to share it with. Without this license, we couldn't help people share that information."

Basically, Facebook doesn't own the content that you post - but it can certainly use it for company purposes. Think twice before posting that sweet photo of you and your boyfriend, because you just might find it on a company ad someday.

So what can be done? Well, your options are limited - either you become a hermit and avoid social networking and the Internet in general, or you can become more vigilant about the content you post online.

If you never want to see those drunken photos of you go public in a commercial setting, then don't post them in the first place. Try printing them out and showing them to your friends instead. It's old-fashioned and costly, but more secure than uploading them online.

Privacy

Hundreds of photos, contact details, status updates - the current state of social networking is every stalker's dream.

While there is no such thing as complete security on the Internet, it's better to take precautions if you want to keep your data relatively secure online. In other words - start deleting contacts from your list. Social networking shouldn't be treated as a popularity contest: you should limit your network to people you actually know.

This is an issue with a lot of room for gray areas. Who are the people you should add as contacts on your social network? Your fellow gamer whom you chat with every day but have never seen in person, or the geeky classmate you last saw in sixth grade? How about your quiet co-worker whom you barely talk to? It's really up to you, but the rule of thumb is quality over quantity.

Common sense also dictates that if you don't want strangers to contact you, then don't post any contact details. Period.

Also, if you're a rabid Facebook user, you must have been tagged in several dozen photos, videos and notes. Some things aren't quite as harmless. Take those drunken photos. They're not so bad if only your nearest and dearest can view them - but what if your boss checks out an album full of you partying and finds out they were taken the night before the day you spazzed out on a meeting?

Or worse, what if you get someone fired because you posted those photos?

The practical thing will be to ask friends to not upload incriminating photos and videos of you online because - we cannot emphasize this enough - no data is completely safe on the Internet.
Or request them to make the album private for selected individuals.

Then edit your privacy settings (see sidebar) to save your last shreds of dignity.

Fan pages

Editing your settings is especially crucial with Facebook's latest reincarnation, which allows fan pages to function like regular profiles.

Thus, any activity on the pages will appear on your news feed. If you're a registered fan of active pages such as Barack Obama, CNN or Gossip Girl, then prepare to be swamped with activity on your news feed.

How do you prevent floods of unwanted information? Easy. Control your news stream by fixing your settings (the controls look like an old-fashioned sound mixer) so that you receive fewer updates from the fan pages.

Unfortunately, you can't select which fan pages you want to hear less from, so you'll either be receiving too much information or none at all.

Another overlooked feature is the selective feed option - you can choose whom you want to hear more about, or those you want to hear less from.

With the new settings, you can customize your news feed to be able to get the information you want without having to read minute-by-minute updates from people you don't want to hear from (like your exes or all those obscure fan groups you joined).

If you think about it, social networking actually involves a lot of work - from screening out unwanted contacts, keeping a vigilant eye on incriminating photos, or keeping up with your favorite personalities. But it's a lot of fun, especially since more people are signing up for Facebook accounts.

However, fun comes with a price: it never pays to let it all hang out, so start clicking that "Edit privacy settings" button now.

This story was first published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.