Facebook Privacy Settings
February 7, 2011 12:27 PM Subscribe
Will changing privacy settings on Facebook cause something to appear in my (or other's) News Feed?
I've had my relationship privacy setting on "Only Me" for a long time, and I want to change it so that it is visible to friends. Will changing this setting cause it to appear in my News Feed or my friends' News Feeds? Is there any way to make sure it doesn't appear in any news feeds, and just suddenly becomes visible in my profile?
I can't find any answers in Facebook's Help Center about this, and I appreciate your knowledge.
I've had my relationship privacy setting on "Only Me" for a long time, and I want to change it so that it is visible to friends. Will changing this setting cause it to appear in my News Feed or my friends' News Feeds? Is there any way to make sure it doesn't appear in any news feeds, and just suddenly becomes visible in my profile?
I can't find any answers in Facebook's Help Center about this, and I appreciate your knowledge.
Best answer: Changing the privacy setting will not cause spawn a new story on your News Feed. Changing your actual relationship status will. So, in other words, you're safe just changing the privacy.
FYI, if you ever spawn a news story you don't want to go out there, you can delete it from your Profile page and it'll prevent it from showing up in your friends' feeds as well.
posted by mkultra at 12:49 PM on February 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
FYI, if you ever spawn a news story you don't want to go out there, you can delete it from your Profile page and it'll prevent it from showing up in your friends' feeds as well.
posted by mkultra at 12:49 PM on February 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks for the dry run - I had assumed that was what happened and it's good to know it for sure. The frequent changes in privacy settings make it difficult to search for a current answer.
If removing it from my wall would also remove it from newsfeeds, then that seems like a good enough solution, since it would only really be there for a minute, max. I'm looking into if that works for sure.
posted by daboo at 12:49 PM on February 7, 2011
If removing it from my wall would also remove it from newsfeeds, then that seems like a good enough solution, since it would only really be there for a minute, max. I'm looking into if that works for sure.
posted by daboo at 12:49 PM on February 7, 2011
Response by poster: mkultra - I just gave it a go, and you're right, no news story. And thanks for settling the other question about how to remove items from friends' feeds. I'll update it if it seems things change.
posted by daboo at 1:00 PM on February 7, 2011
posted by daboo at 1:00 PM on February 7, 2011
I agree with you and mkultra. I don't think the act of changing a privacy setting ever directly causes a news story to appear in anyone's feed. In other words, changing a privacy setting isn't supposed to retroactively cause an event from the past to show up in anyone's feed. It only applies to things that happen afterwards. So, if you change your relationship status and then, 5 seconds later, set your privacy to display changes in your relationship status, no one will see the relationship story. If, instead, you make that privacy change and then change your relationship status 5 seconds later, your relationship status will be broadcast to people's feeds. I haven't seen this written down anywhere, but that's what I've gathered from experience.
posted by John Cohen at 3:31 PM on February 7, 2011
posted by John Cohen at 3:31 PM on February 7, 2011
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I just tested the situation with a dummy account I have that's friends with my main account, and the new relationship status did indeed pop up in my main account's newsfeed.
It will also pop up as an announcement on your wall. I think that removing it from your wall might stop it from showing up on peoples' newsfeeds, but I'm not sure about that one.
posted by auto-correct at 12:45 PM on February 7, 2011