To all my contacts, friends, I request that: With the recent changes on Facebook, now one can see things from people who are not in your contact list just because a contact of yours makes a comment or “likes” in some activity of that person. I do not want people to contact me, especially those people I really don’t know or have nothing to do with and would like that they not read and see all my comments and stuff. But I can not change this myself because Facebook has configured it this way. However, you can do it for me. PLEASE place your mouse over my name above (DO NOT click), a window will appear and move the mouse on “FRIENDS” (also DO NOT click), then down to “Settings”, CLICK here and a list will appear. Click “COMMENTS & LIKE” and it would thereby remove the CHECK. By doing this my activities amongst my friends, contacts, and my family does not become public.

That is the message that constantly appears on my wall from friends asking me to do exactly what the post says! Basically, they want me to control their own FB settings for the sake of their privacy!

Will following the steps really give your friends the privacy they need? Let’s do it step by step.

Let me use one of the accounts on my “friends” list as a example. Say, my brother Jeffrey, will request that I do exactly what the message above says…

Request 1: PLEASE place your mouse over my name above (DO NOT click), a window will appear


Result 1: Looks fine, and yes, a window appeared.

Request 2: Now move the mouse on “FRIENDS” (also without clicking), then down to “Settings”, click here and a list will appear.


Result 2: Again, the result looks okay. A list appeared after clicking “Settings.”

Request 3: REMOVE the CHECK on “COMMENTS & LIKE” by clicking on it. By doing this, my activity amongst my friends and my family will no longer become public.


Result 3: This is where the problem comes in. If I remove the ‘check’ mark on “COMMENTS & LIKE”, I am not actually doing what the post claims: “my activity amongst my friends and my family will no longer become public”. Instead, I am simply unsubscribing from my brother’s Facebook comments and likes. Meaning, I won’t be seeing comments and likes posted by my brother, even those he posted to a family member! But why would I do that? Isn’t Facebook about receiving updates from friends?

The message above is a hoax and, if you are reading this, don’t post it on your FB wall. Remember that you cannot control your friends’ privacy settings. Only them can control the settings on how far their updates can be viewed on Facebook.

If you really want to control what happens to your content, or post on your timeline, then go to “Privacy Settings”, and then edit the setting on your “Timeline and Tagging”.

Let’s all stop spreading false info and enjoy Facebook!