Is Facebook sharing your personal information?

The first time you get hit with a targeted ad, a suggestion for a new friend or something else that seems based on your personal information, it can be a little intimidating. It's almost like there are elves in that machine, picking out ads just for you. And, of course, that's pretty much exactly what's going on -- only instead of elves, it's computer servers, and they don't know anything about you, or care.

They just take a list of everybody who's interested in soccer, for example -- whether they've posted about recent news or games, clicked "like" on a team or event, or listed themselves as playing for a team -- and then push the same soccer-oriented ad toward everybody. The elves never even know your name.

Facebook uses and shares your personal information in many ways that basically operate on this same principle: By aggregating it (making a big pile of the data), they make sure that you're not personally attached to the information itself. After all, marketers don't really care about you, either. They just want to divert their advertising to anybody who might like to buy their stuff. And, of course, on the other end, they just want to know how many people are even interested in the first place. Does it bother you if Facebook tells an advertiser that 100,000 people like a given movie, if you just happen to be one of those 100,000 people?

Of course, when you sign on to third-party applications and sites, or connect your accounts through Facebook, you're agreeing to a bit more than that. But Facebook takes precautions to make sure those other companies don't use your information in sketchy ways, to the degree that it can, and takes pains to ensure that you know what you're getting into before you agree.

The final controversial way Facebook can share your data is when matters of legality come into play. If there's a reasonable belief that illegal, terroristic or abusive behavior is going on, Facebook will cooperate with the authorities. However, here we're also talking about jurisdiction, which means that for users in countries that don't benefit from the same freedoms and rights that Americans do, Facebook might be cooperating with investigations and governments of which you might not personally approve.

The good news is that all of these things are under your control. You have the power. And with a little diligence, you can design a Facebook experience perfectly in line with the way you want to use the site.

It starts with input. If you don't want personal information available to Facebook, don't give it up. You don't even have to provide a photo: Your name, gender and date of birth are all that's required to sign up, and the latter two can even be hidden, if you'd prefer.

If you don't want people to be able to find you -- your profile, posts, content or personal information -- on search engines, it only takes a few clicks to make you practically invisible.

What happens with your Facebook profile is entirely up to you, if you're willing to explore your security options and settings. Yes, those photos from last Saturday may be pretty embarrassing, but it's simple to untag yourself from them -- or even set your privacy settings so that you never get tagged at all. By digging into your privacy and notification settings, as well as your lists, you can make sure nobody ever sees anything you don't want them to see, and that you're notified the second anybody else says anything about you.

Most of us don't really bother to check out the privacy settings in detail, but if you just sit down and play with them for a while, most of the user settings are designed to be pretty easy to use. By defining different parts of your profile at different security levels, you can keep security risks to a minimum while still using the site's functionality.

The major roadblock here is intimidation. You may think of Facebook as a giant company, or a shifty organization, or a haven for stalkers. You might think that the privacy settings are intentionally difficult to use, or that Facebook could profit from misusing your information. But the fact is that none of that is actually true. The reason those settings seem so complicated is actually because they're trying to help you find the right level of security for every piece of information you offer.

Don't be intimidated by Facebook: It's a tool, just like any other machine. For more Facebook articles, check out the links on the next page.