Things Facebook Won't Tell You

Things Facebook Won't Tell You: 
*Taken from a Reader's Digest Article in Feb 2013 edition*

1. Want to know how much facebook knows about you? Go to Account Settings menu and click DOWNLOAD A COPY OF YOUR FACEBOOK DATA. Small print.

2. You may not want to share your updates and other personal information with the whole world, but they keep the default setting as PUBLIC. It's better for them if you share more, and they are assuming that most of us aren't going to bother to change our privacy settings.

3. You may not see every post from your friends, and only a fraction of your friends may see all your updates. Facebook wants users to see posts that will keep them on the site the longest, so it moves up the posts that are the most liked, shared, and commented on.

4. If you are signed in to facebook we track you while you surf the internet. Anytime you visit a page that has a Facebook LIKE or Share button, they log that information.

5. If your posts are set to be Public, burglars can see your status updates and figure out when your not in town. Insurance companies may also use posted information to raise a premium or deny a claim.

6. Posting big news like your engagement, the birth of a baby, or your acceptance to grad school? Facebook will know. They target those types of announcements by using something called natural language processing, and then they make sure they stick around in your friends' news feeds until the next time they log on.

7. It may work to your benefit for them to know alot about you. For instance, if you LIKE the Gap facebook page because you shop there, you will appreciate it when a coupon pops up.

8. Not seeing enough posts from friends you care about and too many from those you don't? Set your news feed to sort by Most Recent, rather than Top News. Then add your favorite people to your close friends list and unsubscribe from any friends whose updates your not interested in receiving.

9.They make money by selling ad space to companies that want to reach you. They give them demographics, the desired location, career, education level and they put their ads on the pages of those who meet the criteria.

10. If you really want to make sure your friends see your important news, you can pay a fee, around $7 to $10 a post, to move your update to the top of their news feeds.

11. Lots of users hate the Timeline, but it's not going away anytime soon. It's a more effective way for people to share, it's visually appealing and the brands love it because it gives them a better platform to market their business and show people who they are.

12. You can limit your posts to Facebook friends who live in your city, those who went to your college, or those you work with. You can even choose to allow everyone to view a post except your boss. Click the arrow in the lower right hand corner of the status update box, and you will see all the options.