As the new Facebook Graph Search continues its slow rollout to more users, more people are going to have the ability to search more deeply in the content of the social media giant.
What this means to you is that all of those weird photos that are buried in your Facebook Timeline are going to be very easy to search. All they need to do is type ‘photos of [your name].’
However, people should remember that Graph Search is locked into whatever your privacy settings are. If you have photos that are available only to friends or friends of friends, only they will be able to find that photo in the search.
However, some of your photos may not be flagged as only visible to friends. And, photos of you that were taken by friends could be accessible to the broad public. You will want to double check this before Graph Search goes totally live in the near future.
There are several ways you can lock down your privacy in your settings, before Graph Search goes global. Here are a few ways:
- The Activity Log has a total list of everything that is related to you and the apps that you have in Facebook. You get there by clicking on the Activity Log button that is on the top right of your profile below your cover photo. You can find all of your posts and photos, including ones that you were tagged in by your friends. You can change the visibility settings for every photo and post. This is the big go to place to make sure that your content is as private as you wish it to be.
- By clicking on the photos that are in your Activity Log, you can surf through all photos in which you are tagged. You can click on the tiny gray friends icon at the right of the photo to see the privacy settings, or to take off the tag. You can also click the check box on the left if you want to remove photos in bulk.
- Also, you can revert to all of your earlier posts to a previous selected privacy setting, including friends only. You cannot undo this, but it is a smart way to make sure that everything you posted in Facebook years ago is still private to only the people who you want to see it. You can locate this option in the privacy settings as ‘Limit the Audience for Past Posts.’
There is a good deal of concern about what Facebook Graph Search is going to mean – for both regular Facebook users and businesses that have product lines that Facebook could move into. We will see how the new feature unfolds soon.