Facebook Friends Likes and Comments

With Facebook's latest revamp, one can easily become overwhelmed by seeing friends' likes and comments on other friends' walls.

I personally would rather not see people's photos and posts if they're not on my own friends list. So what to do?

The reason I am interested in this feature is that I accidentally commented twice on other people's walls or photos because I thought they belonged to my friends when they appeared on my feed.

Unsubscribing from a Facebook Friend's Comments and Likes

There's a reason I don't have some people on my friends list, and there's no reason why other people's friends need to have me posting on their pictures and uploads! Otherwise we'd all have all our posts set to public. Right?

Apparently there isn't a mass-unsubscribe option, which of course would be a fantastic and easy service to users.

Instead, you can target each instance of TMI sharing as it happens on your feed. Just click on the upper right hand corner of a particular "offending" post--you'll see a little white down-arrow where you need to click. A pop-up menu will appear. Look for the very last option on the bottom, that says "Unsubscribe from the comments and likes by XXX" and you're done.

Cheers!

PS - doesn't that baby jaguar in the photo look like it's ready to hurt someone? ^^;

Password Safety PSA

These days, with the innumerable ways to access our accounts (cell phone, on multiple computers, with widgets and apps, etc.) there's a really long (and getting longer), convoluted process involved in changing passwords periodically.

Here's an example of what I mean about convoluted:
You decide to change your Yahoo! email password, which, in turn, reflects on all your Yahoo! services. You grab your cell phone and update the email account password. While still on the cell phone, you upate your Yahoo! app's password setting. Do you have your Yahoo! account on your iGoogle? Great, then you'll need to update that password too. The list goes on.

But no matter how annoying and aimless this process may seem, it's keeping you from that heart-sinking feeling such as when someone's hijacked your email account login and started sending out spam to friends and strangers--what happened to me last Friday. You may get lax like I did, and not change your password. But the small bother of keeping your security routine is nothing compared to the deep-gut pang you feel once you realize someone else is in your account. With access to all sorts of stuff. Stuff that's private. Stuff that's financial in nature. Who knows what stuff.

It's especially dangerous when your login allows access to a number of related services, such as a Yahoo!, MSN, or Google account login and password do. Imagine all your personal data locked away from you and in the very capable hands of an online hoodlum.

Make sure you have a good process for changing your passwords periodically. Maybe quarterly, maybe monthly, maybe biannually. Use a mix of upper and lower case, numbers, and symbols. Whatever you do, stick with it and don't get lazy, because that's the one small chance these masterminds need to ruin a lot for you--starting with your online rep and moving on up to real world complications.

So what are you doing still reading this, go change all your passwords right now! But don't forget what they've been changed to... ;)

GovInfo's Cyber-Security Influencers

Just heard from Federal News Radio that GovInfo just released a list of their top government security influencers. Check it out.