Facebook Privacy Settings

and those unsettling friend recommendations

[vordmeister]

I set up a new facebook account today and then promptly disabled it. I already had one with nothing on it, but wanted a new one that would be private from people at work.

Work contacts popped up on the friend recommendations. I don't want to pop up on theirs so I went into privacy and turned off the option for people to find me based on the mobile number. Then I deleted all cookies. Then clicked everything I could find to friends only (and I don't have friends). Then deleted the mobile number. The work collegues were still there in the recommended friends list so I got freaked out and disabled the account.

Anyone any ideas or suggestions about how to break free?

[engine]

Wipe all your cookies. Some FB cookies are extremely persistent.

[engine]

I meant to add, also, get yourself a script blocking browser extension.

Firefox has noscript, and also a Facebook container [support.mozilla.org...]
There's also Privacy Badger for FF, Chrome and Opera. Might be others by now.

Some browsers are better at avoiding tracking than others.

Every site you visit may have a FB pixel, or "like" button, which, again, drops a cookie. It's one reason we removed it from posts here.

Try using an extension with autodelete.

Check and update your Facebook privacy, which is always worthwhile.

HTH

[vordmeister]

Thanks @engine I deleted all cookies (previously I had only deleted Facebook cookies) and added the Facebook container then logged back in. I don't know anyone on the recommended friends list - I feel much more comfortable now.

[engine]

I'm not sure it'll solve all the problems because FB is pernicious in its way of tracking.
You are bound to get more FB cookies as you traverse the web.
One day the EU and other authorities will catch up with this over-zealous tracking.

[tangor]

When you deleted cookies, did you CLOSE DOWN your browser and (best!) restart the computer? Did you change your UA? Did you do all you could to "change your fingerprint"? Did you use a proxy? Did you obfuscate your MAC?

In most cases you can't really hide... for long at any rate.

As for fb itself, this "connectivity" is their selling point: to connect you with all your "friends"... on steroids. :)

[vordmeister]

I think this might have been be one of my more ill thought out ventures. My boss appeared in a recommended post again so I've deleted the account. I'm trying Instagram instead as it seems to be more theme and art orientated..

[not2easy]

I'm not sure whether this comes too late to help, but you can segregate 'friends' into categories so they are not seen as a single group. I no longer use FB for personal contacts but I needed to keep things widely separated back when I did. I put my family into a 'Family' category and separated the rest into 'Work', 'Casual Friends' and 'Close Friends'. A lot more detail than I wanted but it allowed me to control what any of those lists were seeing.

I would suggest that you try using a different browser only for FB, with whatever privacy settings that still allow you to log in and out. Delete your history between sessions if needed. Set up a new user on your computer and use that account only for FB. Just some ways to start with a clean slate.

[vordmeister]

I'm transgender but I like to keep that secret from work. I gather Facebook can be a good way to keep in touch with the people you meet in real life, but there is too much risk for me. I will only make a mistake and out myself.

I'm big into art too and have some photos others would probably enjoy. Instagram is probably a better fit for me. Unless anyone can think of some way the boss might get a ping on her phone whenever I post photos.

[not2easy]

Instagram is owned by and widely integrated with Facebook. I would very carefully read their policies before signing up. Flickr is not perfect but it is generally more private than Instagram.