It’s finally here. Facebook Place that is. The question is: 
Is Facebook Places here to much or little fanfare. I guess it depends on who you’re asking. Ask brands and marketing folks and you’ll probably hear some enthusiasm. Ask individuals and you might hear a mix of delight and trepidation.
There has been much talk in the interwebs and MSM about the issue of privacy and Facebook. The introduction of Facebook Places has only increased this debate.
Today show you how to “turn off” Facebook Places. Why? The business and marketing case for Facebook Places will be determined soon. I’m also expecting there to be some tweaks and changes in the coming days and weeks. You can expect some thoughts from me on this later. Or you can also check out your favourite search engine; there are already plenty of articles on that.
Back to the topic at hand. With the media and government harping (which has nothing to do with Mr.Harper…) on Facebook about their privacy many people are curious how to turn this Places thing off. I’m glad you asked…
How to turn off Facebook Places:
- Delete your account. Seeing as this is the simplest thing to do I thought I’d put this at the top. You probably won’t do it so on to #2.
- Go to Privacy Settings.
- Click on Customize Settings under the Custom tag.
- You will now see the various things you “allow” yourself to share with others.
- See the “Places I check into”? Click on this and edit the settings to “Only Me.”
- Disable the box that says, “Include me in ‘People Here Now’ after I check in”.
- We’re not done yet. Facebook makes this a little difficult. Not on purpose though.
- Scroll down to “Things Others Share” and disable “Friends can check me in to Places”.
- Still not done. You may want to revisit #1 above.
- Go back one page to the main Privacy Settings page.
- Go to edit the “Applications and Websites”.
- Edit “Info accessible through your friends”.
- Uncheck “Places I check into”.
- I think this is it. But you can always revisit #1 and seriously consider it.
If any of you find an easier way of disabling or turning off Facebook Places (especially in Canada) please feel free to comment below. And please don’t cancel your Facebook account. I might take it that you don’t want to be my friend.