What Do Facebook's Changes Mean to You?

The question is, how much do you really want to share with your friends? In the case of Spotify it's an all or nothing deal — you can turn off sharing altogether, or you can let your friends see all the songs you play, including those guilty pleasure tunes best kept to yourself (The Chipmunks singing "I Like Big Butts"? Really?).

These new sharing-intensive apps will include a wide variety of activities, including playing games, reading news stories, watching videos, exercising, cooking recipes and more. Maybe you don't care if all your Facebook friends know you're scarfing down Triple Decadence Fudge Brownies, or reading a news story about sexual dysfunction among senior men. If you're a little more reserved, though, you'll want to check the privacy settings for each app and make the appropriate adjustment. This is usually accomplished by going to Facebook's Privacy Settings section, choosing Apps, and clicking the arrow next to "App activity privacy." Facebook would prefer you share with the world so, when you first click here, your only choices will be Public, Friends of Friends, Friends and Customize. You'll have to choose Customize to set the sharing option "Only Me."

Enhanced Security

One final Facebook development deserves a warm round of applause. They just partnered with a company called Websense to check the safety of any link offered up on Facebook when you click on it, helping weed out the types of viruses, malware and fraud we've covered before (Fight Facebook Fraud). While you should still use common sense before clicking on suspicious links, this is a major step in the right direction.  

PROS: A worthwhile tool in the battle against the Facebook fraud epidemic.

CONS: Could lull users into a false sense of security — you should still think before clicking.