Tick, tick, tick....Boom!
December 18, 2011 3:16 AM Subscribe
Yet another Facebook privacy question. How can I block certain information from my friends' tickers?
I have a question about sharing information on Facebook with the ticker.
I am fairly active on FB, responding to comments, liking stuff etc. What I noticed, is that all that activity shows up in other people's tickers. What I want is that posts like my status updates or pictures I share can be seen in the ticker, but my 'likes', responses and posts I put on my friends' wall can't. Is that at all possible, and if so, how can I do it. I have found a lot of information about privacy settings, but nothing specific enough yet.
Thanks!
I have a question about sharing information on Facebook with the ticker.
I am fairly active on FB, responding to comments, liking stuff etc. What I noticed, is that all that activity shows up in other people's tickers. What I want is that posts like my status updates or pictures I share can be seen in the ticker, but my 'likes', responses and posts I put on my friends' wall can't. Is that at all possible, and if so, how can I do it. I have found a lot of information about privacy settings, but nothing specific enough yet.
Thanks!
I'm not sure that's true (that the ticker entries are blocked to people to whom you haven't given 'rights'), or it hasn't always been true (so it makes me worry that it will become untrue again). I've definitely seen posts/links/status updates on there, and then not been able to find them on the particular person's page (so I assume I was blocked from them). I hope someone else can explain further.
posted by Tandem Affinity at 5:49 AM on December 18, 2011
posted by Tandem Affinity at 5:49 AM on December 18, 2011
Best answer: "Likes" are considered to be public, and there is no privacy setting you can change to alter that. If you don't want everyone in the world to know that you like something, don't "Like" it on Facebook.
As for comments on other people's posts, those are controlled by the privacy setting on the original post. So, if you comment on Friend A's post, depending on Friend A's privacy settings, your comment could be visible to some subset of A's friends, all of A's friends, or the whole world. You can tell by the little icon at the bottom of the post whether it is shared with the whole world, or just some or all of A's friends, but there is no way for you to change that privacy setting. If you comment on a post that someone can see, they can see the comment.
Anything that is public or is visible to a person is fair game to show up in their ticker. If you "Like" anything on Facebook or comment on a post someone can see, that will show up in their ticker. The only way to keep something out of a friend's ticker is to not do it, or at least not do it in a part of Facebook that is visible to them.
(I got this information directly from a Facebook employee, so I believe it to be accurate.)
posted by decathecting at 7:19 AM on December 18, 2011 [3 favorites]
As for comments on other people's posts, those are controlled by the privacy setting on the original post. So, if you comment on Friend A's post, depending on Friend A's privacy settings, your comment could be visible to some subset of A's friends, all of A's friends, or the whole world. You can tell by the little icon at the bottom of the post whether it is shared with the whole world, or just some or all of A's friends, but there is no way for you to change that privacy setting. If you comment on a post that someone can see, they can see the comment.
Anything that is public or is visible to a person is fair game to show up in their ticker. If you "Like" anything on Facebook or comment on a post someone can see, that will show up in their ticker. The only way to keep something out of a friend's ticker is to not do it, or at least not do it in a part of Facebook that is visible to them.
(I got this information directly from a Facebook employee, so I believe it to be accurate.)
posted by decathecting at 7:19 AM on December 18, 2011 [3 favorites]
If you go to your activity log and hide it from your timeline, it might not show up on the ticker. Not sure, but worth a shot.
(you would have to have already updated to your new timeline page)
posted by Vaike at 9:15 AM on December 18, 2011
(you would have to have already updated to your new timeline page)
posted by Vaike at 9:15 AM on December 18, 2011
Vaike, from what I can tell, hiding from Timeline is separate from hiding from Ticker. A lot of things show up in Ticker that would never show up in Timeline. Also, the Timeline publication is basically instantaneous, so even if hiding a particular activity did make it go away in Ticker, anyone who had Facebook open when you did it could have already seen it. So I don't think that will work.
posted by decathecting at 9:34 AM on December 18, 2011
posted by decathecting at 9:34 AM on December 18, 2011
Best answer: If, when looking at your own wall, you can see your own recent activity (ie commenting on friend's walls or posts), simply click on the small "x" to the right of the "story" on the wall, and you will be given the option to "hide all recent comment activity from profile". This prevents your friends from seeing all your activity on facebook when they look at your wall, as well as seeming to eliminate these stories from appearing in other people's tickers or newsfeeds...except for the situations that decathecting describes above.
Once you have done this, you can confirm by scrolling to the very bottom of your wall until you see "Edit Options" on the bottom right, once there you can see if you have hidden the following "story types": comment activity, friending activity, wall posts you make and changes to your profile.
posted by smartypantz at 11:01 PM on December 18, 2011
Once you have done this, you can confirm by scrolling to the very bottom of your wall until you see "Edit Options" on the bottom right, once there you can see if you have hidden the following "story types": comment activity, friending activity, wall posts you make and changes to your profile.
posted by smartypantz at 11:01 PM on December 18, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by easternblot at 3:25 AM on December 18, 2011