How do the privacy settings work for minors on Facebook Places?

If you’d like to take your control over who can find you on Facebook to the next level, you may also decide who on Facebook, as well as the world — as in Google — can see about you. The Search options under the Privacy Settings menu allow you to opt-out of public searches on services like Google by checking a box and adjust your privacy settings within Facebook via a drop-down menu ranging from Everyone to Only Friends. You have the option to see a preview of what your information looks when you allow yourself to be searched.

Editing the privacy settings of the apps on your Facebook profile is another way to protect your privacy, given that most apps access the information on your profile as a condition of use. Select Application Settings from the Settings dropdown menu or go to the Applications and Websites section of Privacy Settings in the same dropdown menu to edit these settings. As with most privacy settings on Facebook, when you click on Edit Settings of a particular application you may decide who you want to see your activity within that app, which in this case includes items like your Notes and Wall.

To edit SuperPoke, for example, click on Edit Settings and decide who you want to see your activity there: Everyone, Networks, Friends of Friends, Friends or Only Me. In the Applications and Websites menu under Privacy Settings you can click on the Learn More button to find out what Facebook says you share with, potentially, the world when you access and app or other web sites. Specifically, “When you visit a Facebook-enhanced application or website, it may access any information you have made visible to Everyone as well as your publicly available information.

This includes your Name, Profile Picture, Gender, Current City, Networks, Friend List, and Pages. The page prompts you to edit your privacy settings after reading. On this page you may also Edit Blocked Applications, which essentially does what it says: blocks apps from your page.

This is an option than can also be accessed on the Requests page, and comes in handy on the twenty-seventh request to join Mafia Wars, for example. In this vein, if you have a friend who uses every single app on Facebook and wants you to as well, you have the option to Ignore Application Invites from certain friends, an option also available on the Requests page, located in the upper right-hand side of your homepage. And for those of you who are done with Facebook — literally — there’s the Deactivate option for your account, found under Account Settings, although simply clicking on deactivate will not erase your account.

First, Facebook will beg you to stay, reminding you with photos and requests that you have friends who will “miss you” and ask you to send them a message before erasing your account. There’s also a survey asking you what your dissatisfaction with the service was. To conclude, the privacy settings on Facebook are somewhat confusing, in part because there are multiple places to edit the same settings.

But, it’s also worth noting that Facebook continually redesigns its interface and likely will re-arrange some of the locations for privacy settings. It’s worth taking a look to ensure that you’re getting exactly what you want out of Facebook— whatever that may be.