Facebook Privacy: 3 Fights to Expect When You Get the New Timeline

As an adult, you have responsibilities an income, maybe a mortgage, possibly children. Thats great! Congrats. Now is certainly not the time to be throwing caution to the wind just know that Facebook will be doing that for you.

The Facebook Timeline resurfaces information you thought permanently buried, or at least, tucked away in a booze-soaked archive called college or your mid-twenties. Not anymore. Now, everyones profile page will become an organized scrapbook, tidily filed and tagged in one convenient place, accessed by easy clicks.

SEE ALSO: Is Facebook Trying to Kill Privacy?

Just when you thought youd survived all Facebook-related quarrels, the new timeline is sure to expose more hurt feelings and suspicions.

Here are the three people youll likely butt heads with, and some tips to ensure your post-Timeline privacy remains intact.

1. Your Significant Other

Deep down in your social graph, those old photos and status updates with ex-boyfriends or girlfriends are hiding. Thats pretty much where you want them to stay borderline invisible, right? Likely, youve purposely kept their presence vague and unintimidating, especially from your current significant other. The new Facebook profile, however, gurgles your exes back to the surface of a soup that may be bitter to begin with.

SEE ALSO: Facebook Timeline: Heres What It Looks Like [VIDEO]

Now each of our profiles will become a virtual scrapbook. In other words, your already jealous girlfriend can easily peruse your college years, right around the time your ex-girlfriend wall-spammed you: I love you bunches and gobs, pookykins! Cue jealousy. As if relationship statuses werent already fraught with drama, this new profile may antagonize many a good relationship. Make sure yours doesnt suffer.

My advice? Quickly survey the ex-thumbprint on your new Facebook. While I dont advise completely locking down your profile from your current boy/girlfriend, consider their feelings by hiding excessive ex posts on your timeline.

• Hover your cursor over the top-right of the post where it says edit or remove.
• Then click hide from timeline. Note that when you refresh, it wont appear on your public timeline.
• However, youll still be able to view a comprehensive (and private) log of all of your timeline activity over the years by clicking the View Activity icon underneath your profile cover, ! or by ac cessing http://www.facebook.com/YOURUSERID?sk=allactivity.

2. Your Parents

Think about how long it took your parents to find out about the magic that is (or was, depending on your point of view) Facebook. Likely, Facebook wasnt truly Baby Boomed until at least 08 or 09. For many of the Facebook generation, this is likely around the time we finally grew up.

Your parents joined Facebook at a time when pictures of your keg stands and 4/20 status updates were already nestled safely into the depths of Internet history (or at least a loooong scroll down the page). Not anymore. Now, mom can pore over 2006 with minimal effort.

Crank up the parental privacy controls soon, ideally before they figure out how to use their new profiles.

Therefore, I would suggest either following the steps above by hiding potentially offensive posts, or adding your parents to a list. By adding them to that list, you can restrict your future status updates or posts by editing custom settings each time. Heres how to create a new list:

• Go to the homepage and click Lists, located in the column to the left of the News Feed.
• Click the Create a List icon at the top of the page and name it something like Limited Profile or Parents.
• Add said parents (and any other sensitive friends) to the list.
• Now every time you share a post or update your status, you can choose to customize its audience. Click Custom from the drop-down box and choose to share with friends, but perhaps hide from a certain list in other words, the Limited Profile list you just created. (Note: the custom option you chose will apply to all future posts until you alter it again.)

Unfortunately, Facebook doesnt allow you to edit the view option of posts already published on your timeline (wall) unless theyre your own. For example, you cant exclude certain lists from seeing a photo that your best friend posted to your wall three years ago without hiding the photo alt! ogether.

However, you can change the view options of your own posts. Simply click View Activity under your profile cover to access your private log, then select custom view options on past posts youve published.

3. Your Boss

Lets assume the worst: Your boss is a total jerk with loads of time on his hands. Hes itching to scan every last post on your Timeline, searching for any reason to fire you. While this example may be extreme, it does raise some privacy concerns for those who thought to friend their employer in the first place. Here are some options:

• Type your boss name into the View As option underneath your profile cover. At the very least, quickly scan each year youve been active on Facebook. If something embarrassing or incriminating surfaces, consider removing it from the timeline entirely or, dont be friends with your boss on Facebook.
• Or add your boss to Facebooks default Restricted list, that you can also find under the lists section on your homepage. Note, however, that this can severely restrict most posts they can see on your page. Your boss might take it personally?
• Finally, you might choose to enable Timeline Review, which allows you to approve or reject posts youre tagged in before they publish to your profile. Theyll appear as pending posts on your wall.

Now, Im not bragging, but luckily Ive retained privacy restrictions from my old Limited Profile list that I can still apply to bosses and the like. The people on that list still cant see any photos tagged of me whatsoever, even back in 2007.

Unfortunately, Facebook doesnt allow you to entirely restrict certain posts (like photos) from new lists anymore. Remember when you could go to privacy settings and select which people or lists were allowed access to certain items on you! r wall ( e.g. tagged photos, posts from friends)? Not anymore. Now you only have the room to restrict friends from viewing your own posts on a case-by-case basis. No more blanket privacy options.

So, are you up to the task of conquering Facebooks new privacy settings? Let us know how you fare with bosses, parents and significant others as you adapt to Facebooks latest changes.

A Closer Look at the Facebook Timeline

The New Facebook Profile: Timeline

Timeline is a radical departure from previous versions of the Facebook user profile. The most prominent feature is the addition of a cover photo at the top of the page. Users can change this to whatever they'd like it to be.

1987

In 1987, my sister was born. Facebook knows these life events and includes them in your timeline.

Being Born

You can even add a picture and context to your birth, which starts the Timeline.

Timeline Interface

The Timeline is a two-column interface with top photos, status updates, friends and more.

Map

Facebook has added a feature that lets you see where you have visited. This is powered by Facebook Places.

Photos in the Timeline

Here's how photos are displayed in the Timeline.

Friends in the New Timeline

Here's what the Friends page looks like.

Changing Settings

Some of the new Timeline's customization features.

2009

More of the new Timeline

Getting Married

You can add life events, such as getting married, to your profile through the Publisher Bar. You can also announce that you broke a bone, got a new job, etc.

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