Get increased Facebook security with HTTPS

Add extra Facebook security

Ah, the Internet.   Home of silly company names and weird acronyms for cool stuff.   Gowalla, anyone?

The latest focus in online verbiage that you should really know about is:   HTTPS (‘hypertext transfer protocol, with SSL security)

Facebook has recently added HTTPS support, which means that you now have the ability to access the Facebook site in a more secure environment.

How to update your Facebook HTTPS settings

  1. Visit your ‘Account Settings’ page:

    Update Facebook account settings

  2. Scroll to Account Security and click ‘Browse Facebook on a secure connection (HTTPS) whenever possible’:
  3. Don’t see this option yet? Hold on for a bit, as they are rolling it out over the next couple of weeks.

How will HTTPS affect my Facebook-ing?

The Facebook programmers have cautioned users that enabling this additional encryption may cause pages to load more slowly and also means that some 3rd party applications may not work until some additional tweaking is done.

What?   Facebook has been insecure this whole time?

Wellllll…   that’s a tricky question to answer.   This increase in encryption with HTTPS makes it that much harder to access your Facebook when you are, say, surfing on a public wifi connection.

But, as we’ve seen with numerous Facebook updates that have exposed information users didn’t intend to share publicly, approaching your Facebook surfing and sharing with caution is ALWAYS highly recommended.

Feeling overwhelmed or want a friendly person to friend on Facebook?   Contact the Schipulites to see how we can help!

Photo thanks to Flickr user Sean McGrath

Facebook Updates Profiles, Friends Lists & More

Facebook recently announced a new set of pretty cool updates.

Well, it’s very cool for Facebook, because it’s like what Matt Mullenweg said, “You can never fully anticipate how an audience is going to react to something you’ve created until it’s out there.”

For everyone else, it can be obnoxious because it’ s not always clear what these updates mean to you. So let’s explore the updates and what they mean to you.

  • New Profile
  • Friend Lists
  • Mobile Controls
  • Friendship Pages

New Profile Page

FB Updates - New ProfileFacebook made a few changes that clean up the look of profile pages and engages the user in a different way.

I took a tour of the new profile page and basically it does three profile-specific things:

  • Puts your basic info at the top of the page below your name
  • Displays your most recent photos right below your basic info
  • Displays the FB navigation (Wall, Info, Photos)   below your profile picture on the left

Here’s what it means to you: the photos are first. Photos are the most used feature on Facebook, and now they’re easier to view. Everyone doesn’t have the new profile right now, but everyone will by early next year.

Friend Lists

The Friend lists are a bit tricky to navigate, but somewhat easy to create. If you hover near the number of friends you have, a pen icon appears. Click it and you’re directed to a page that lets you manage relationships. Visit this page to change your own relationship status, add family members, view your featured friends and create new lists.

The Mobile Controls

FB Updates - Mobile ControlsThe new mobile controls let you see what you’ve shared with applications and websites in one place. And it lets you manage the settings. The feature is available through the mobile site, so you’ll have to select “Go To Mobile Site” from your phone to use it.

What it means to you: You can make changes to privacy settings without having to be near a computer. Just realized your Starbucks check-ins are showing up on your profile? Now you can change that before you even get your latte.

Friendship Pages

FB Updates - friendship pagesFriendship Pages were launched several weeks ago, and I’m kind of in love with them. Like everything else, the more you put into them, the more you get out of them. Meaning, if you tag   your friends in photos of you together and interact through Facebook often, your friend page will be rich with content.

What this means to you: just by clicking the “Friendship” link, you’ll be able to see a history of your relationship with one of your friends. You can also see the relationship between mutual friends.

Want to learn more about the latest Facebook updates? Check out these articles:

Facebook profile pages get a big overhaul

Facebook Fan Pages Now have Spam Filters…

… and this makes us Happy, Happy, Happy!

If you are an Admin on a Facebook Page you may have noticed already the new ‘Spam” option on your pages.   You may also already seen it at work hiding those pesky sales pitches for Magic Acai Berries and the like.

Facebook’s Help Center states:

Facebook Pages › Facebook Pages: Creating, administering and editing your Page

What is the Spam filter on my Page’s wall?

Facebook is now helping Page admins ensure that the most valuable content posted by users on their Page wall is more visible to anyone viewing the Page. We are now offering automatic content filtering on Page walls that will ensure that posts soliciting spam are removed from public view as well as ensure that posts containing good content remain more visible.

If you have your page setting such that posts to your page are separated by your organization’s and then all others, you will see the ‘Spam” link as the 4th option in this list. Not to worry’ only Page Admins can see this link.

Facebook Spam Filter

Clicking the ‘Spam” link will show you all the content Facebook as deemed spam worthy and moved off your page.
Mouseing over the spam post will reveal a little ‘X” to the top right of the post. Clicking the ‘X” will reveal several options:

Facebook Spam Filter
1.      Remove the post
2.      Unmark as Spam
3.      Report as Abuse
If the post does really belong in the general content of your organization’s Facebook page… then by all means click that Unmark option. If however the post does fall into that dark side of the internet category called spam, then I suggest you report as abuse and then remove it. This will alert Facebook to the insidious nature of the offending poster and may hopefully save a fellow organization admin a few moments of time later on down the line.

If you have a mixed wall, meaning you show all posts from your organization mixed with other’s post, you won’t see the spam link. You will want to first click the ‘Options” link, then following the same instructions above.

Facebook Spam Filter
Thanks to popularity of Facebook we can use it connect with like minded people and promote, support and grow our non-profit and for profit organizations alike… and… due to the popularity of Facebook the spammers will start to show up more and more. Thankfully, Facebook is putting measures into place to make the Facebook experience a good one for both admins and users.

Schipul Reviews The Social Network

It’s not often we get to talk about Hollywood here at the Official Schipul Blog. However, with the release of The Social Network, we’re rolling out the red carpet, and grabbing a bowl of popcorn (with extra butter, natch)!

The Social Network

The Social Network, aka “The Facebook Movie”, is based on The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich. Mezrich is most famous for writing the book Bringing Down the House, which inspired the movie 21 about a group of MIT students who take Vegas to the tune of $3 million. So, yeah, Mezrich knows high drama in the palaces of higher education.

Original Facebook

I saw the movie Friday night with the lovely, Caitlin Kaluza, and we  made for an interesting dichotomy of Facebook users. Caitlin is one of the lucky folks to have actually used www.thefacebook.com (pictured above). I didn’t start using it until shortly after it was opened up to the general public. One of the interesting aspects of watching The Social Network is freshness of its history, the “I remember when . . .” moments.

In the end, this is where the rubber meets the road in The Social Network. It is a fast paced, intelligent, humorous romp through the history of Facebook. The payoff is going to be in the conversations the movie is sure to start amongst your friends. Indeed, I am anxious for more of my friends to watch it to hear their reactions, share their stories. I’m also fairly certain that I will be back in a theater to watch it again soon.

A lot of talk is being made about The Social Network being the “movie of a generation.”

It’s not.

It is a movie about the idea that is currently defining a generation. The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink defined a generation, and The Social Network does not compare. However, The Social Network will go down as one of the best films of 2010, and that is a distinction I feel it carries incredibly well.  By my count, I see at least 5 Oscar nominations for the film: Best Picture, Best Actor (Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg), Best Director (David Fincher), Best Adapted Screenplay (Aaron Sorkin) and Best Score (Trent Renzor). Any more than that will be a based on whether the Academy deems this the “it” movie of the year. As for actual wins? Eh, it’s really too early to call, but I would like to see how a showdown between The Social Network and Inception plays out this Oscar Season.

In the meantime, please excuse me, I need to go share this link on my Facebook.

Facebook Keeps A-Changin’

Yes,   Facebook has changed your privacy controls   yet again, which now feels like the 10th time this year. The repeated changes Zuckerberg has made to Facebook has subsequently confused and angered users, even prompting a “Quit Facebook Day“. With bad press circulating, Facebook decided to simplify controls making it easier to decide what and most importantly what not you want to share.

Understanding These Controls

The first difference you will see with the privacy settings is not new features, but rather the consolidation of many. Facebook has reduced the number of settings from nearly 50 to less than 15. Now users can change many different settings with a single click, rather than manually selecting (or more likely deselecting) each individually. Facebook has also reduced the number of separate pages in the privacy settings page from 13 to 8.

The picture above illustrates how the controls have been redesigned. Facebook hopes to alleviate your frustration with privacy, so next time you log in make sure to check out the lay out. If you would like to read more about the changes you can read “Controlling How You Share” explanation or the “understanding the changes” blog post.

It Takes a Village – Protect your privacy on Facebook

There has been a LOT of discussion about Facebook’s policies regarding your personal information on the web. The web site ReclaimPrivacy.org has launched a privacy scanner for you to use to see if any of your personal information is vulnerable on the web.

These directions on how to scan your profile are also available on the website:

  1. Drag this link to your bookmark bar.
  2. Log into facebook.com and click on the bookmark.
  3. A series of six scans will be run on your profile.
  4. Anything that rates below Good (green) will be flagged and will provide you links to those relevant privacy settings to change.

I initially received two Cautions (yellow) that I was able to tweak to attain Good ratings across the board. It is advisable you make the same tweaks to your settings to maintain the same level of security. We also recommend you encourage all of your friends to scan their own profiles.

Facebook, for right or for wrong, has taken a lot of flack for not protecting users’ personal information. However, all of these issues can be resolved if users take personal responsibility for their privacy settings. If you fail to take proper care of your privacy settings, you are leaving you and your friends’ personal information vulnerable on the web.