Facebook Check-Ins - Privacy Guide

 Do you want everyone to know where you are?  


Sometimes the answer might be yes. At other times the answer may be no. 


Facebook Check-Ins are when people 'check in' to a location which has been set up as a Facebook Page. You can also check other people into locations. This is the bit you may want to learn more about and hence this mini guide.


I won't go into the myriad of possible reasons for not wanting others to know but here's just one made up example using fictitious characters.


Ian Riggs has gone round to see a lady friend. Let's call her Hermione Thomas. Hermione decides to check into a place she's called "My Bed" and also check in Ian because she's happy about sharing this news. All of Hermione's and all of Ian's friends can see this wonderful news in their news feeds with the map and location for all to see. Ian is married to somebody else however. He would probably not want this information to be broadcast, so much so that he may even attempt to prevent this information being made public by going to the Court for a super injunction. But what if this public broadcast had already happened before he knew about it?


Don't forget - you don't even need to be there, your friend could just say you are! 


If you want control over who can see what, please read on.


When I checked my Facebook privacy settings it said I allowed friends to check me into locations and for my friends to see this. I happened to look into this after having seen myself being 'checked into' a pub by one of my friends. A pub of all places! I have only been out about once in a year and the one night I do, all my friends think I'm an alcoholic!


The following information is basically what I did to discover how to check and change my settings, I hope it's not too complicated for you to follow:


Account (Top right of your home page)
> Privacy Settings

> Customise Settings 

You then have a list of things you might want to look through and change the settings on so you control who sees what. 


This guide is about check-ins, so first of all, in the list "Things I Share" look at the line that says "Places you check into" and set the one you want from the list:

Places you check in to

Friends only

Everyone
Friends of Friends
Friends
Customise


Then - the next line is about letting people nearby see you too:

Include me in "People here now" after I check in

Visible to friends and people checked in nearby(See an example)

Enable

If you click (See an example) this is the kind of thing you might see:

So you need to decide if you want to have that ENABLED or DISABLED.


These two options above are about the check ins that YOU decide to post. Chances are, if you are posting these you will probably want friends only to see, up to you of course!


NEXT, and IMPORTANT bit is the section covering "Things Others Share"

Friends can check me in to places

Edit settings

Click Edit Settings and a box pops up:

Here, you choose ENABLED or DISABLED next to friends can check me into places.


If you click Disable, your friends cannot check you into places. There is a way they can still do this though via their status if they 'mention' you and they mention the name of a page in the same status. If you know how to stop this, please leave a comment below for me and others to find out how to prevent that? Thank You


I think that's it for the check in privacy options. I hope it's helped you to understand what it's all about and how to make the changes you need to make to have the amount of control YOU want over your privacy, not other people controlling it through Facebook.