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"Alison Driscoll is an interactive copywriter and social media consultant who specializes in Facebook. She authors a blog at alisondriscoll.com.\nFacebook provides users with the opportunity to share just about everything: photos, links, videos, virtual gifts and random musings in the form of status updates. Under the guise of \u201Cbeing social\u201D and \u201Cmaintaining transparency,\u201D Facebook fiends post anything and everything about themselves on this now omnipresent social network. \nThis begs the question, how much is too much? Younger generations have no problem sharing nearly every detail of their lives, but is publicly posting all this minutiae really such a good idea? Knowing what you had for lunch is hardly ever going to be interesting, unless you\u2019re a chef, and seeing your drunken antics very well may get you fired. So where do we draw the line, and for whom?\nThe beauty of Facebook\u2019s many features is that now you can choose what you show and to what type of people. By using friend lists and playing with your privacy settings, you can create different views for each segment of your life. \nSegmenting your friends into lists\nFacebook Friend Lists can be utilized for a variety of purposes, but the biggest draw for the average user is that they can label their friends for easy adjustment of Profile Privacy Settings.  Creating Friend Lists may sound harsh or judgmental, but this categorization happens every day in real life; Facebook just allows you to put it to good use.\nThe names or types of Facebook Friend Lists you create will depend on your use of Facebook and the overall purpose of your Profile. If it\u2019s personal, I suggest \u201CPeople You Don\u2019t Know,\u201D \u201CReal (offline) Friends,\u201D \u201CWork People,\u201D and \u201COnline Buddies\u201D for effective tweaking of privacy settings to control each list\u2019s level of profile access.\nThere is no limit to how large a Friend List can or should be when discussing Privacy Settings; however, if you want to use lists to batch invite, message or tag people, you will need to create smaller, more targeted lists. But for privacy purposes, you can make each list as large as you\u2019d like.\nYou can create a list from the Friends page, or choose them individually by name while working on the Privacy Settings page. Simply choose a feature you want to limit, like your Wall, and select \u201CCustomize\u201D from the drop down. Then enter the name of the person or list you want to keep from seeing that feature. You will be prompted to create a list if you enter multiple names by hand. Privacy settings can be adjusted by hovering over \u201CSettings\u201D in the upper right corner of Facebook and clicking on \"Privacy Settings.\u201D\n\n\n\n\nWhat\u2019s safe to share?\nHow much you\u2019re inclined to disclose on Facebook depends on a lot of factors, and can change based on what you did last weekend, who has recently joined the network, and what your overall goals and use of the site are. But a basic breakdown looks like this:\n1. People you don\u2019t know (your public profile listing)\nFirst, adjust how someone you aren\u2019t connected to views your profile.  Allow them to view a bit of personal information, in case a potential employer, networking contact or old friend is looking for you. To do this, make your profile available to \u201CMy Networks and Friends\u201D and your search visibility to \u201CEveryone.\u201D You should also make sure that the \u201CPublic Search Listing\u201D box is checked off so your profile can be indexed.\nNow decide what you don\u2019t want non-friends to see and change these settings, allowing \u201COnly Friends\u201D to see that information. This also sets up the all-access version of your profile for your friends. \u201CSafe\u201D stuff typically includes Basic Info, Personal Info (depending on how much detail you provide), Education Info and Work Info. That means no photos, no videos, no wall. Applications with a more professional focus, like your blog or LinkedIn profile, are also okay.\n2. Your \u201Creal\u201D friends\nYou may or may not consider online-only acquaintance to be \u201Creal\u201D friends; if so, put them in this list. Either way, these are the people who get the full version of your profile. Things reserved exclusively for actual friends might be Photos Tagged of Me, Photo Albums you upload, Videos Tagged of Me, Wall Posts and the ability to post on your wall. You also might want to limit \u201Cfun\u201D applications to this list as well. \n3. Online buddies\nIn the old days, people would recommend hiding indentifying details from this group of friends, but that goes against the nature of Facebook. However, if you have children you may want to block these friends from viewing photos of your kids. Decide what works for you; you can switch your settings at any time.\n4. Coworkers\nSometimes coworkers are friends, sometimes they are a kind of in-between friend. If it\u2019s the latter, you may want to shield them from some of your Photos, Status Updates and Wall Posts. People have been caught lying about \u201Csick\u201D days on Facebook and fired for it, so think long and hard about how friendly you get with your coworkers.\n5. Family\nYes, Facebook is finally popular enough that you might need a separate list for your family members. Depending on how cool your family is, or how out of control your photos and various Facebook antics are, adjust your settings accordingly.\nFinal tips\nNo one will know you\u2019ve changed settings, either for them or in general; these updates will not show up in your news feed, so block people with abandon. Also note that photo albums settings must be changed individually, either when you set up a new album or by going to the Photos section of the Privacy page. However, any photo you use as a profile picture goes in a separate album called \u201CProfile Pictures\u201D which the settings cannot be changed for. So don\u2019t make an inappropriate photo your profile pic. But you knew that.\nMore Facebook resources from Mashable:\n- Do You Have Bad Facebook Manners?- Facebook Can Get You Fired, Dumped, and Yes, Evicted- HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Facebook- New Facebook Pages: A Guide for Social Media Marketers- 5 Elements of a Successful Facebook Fan Page\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, caracterdesign"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/04/28/facebook-privacy-settings/>