The 3 Facebook Settings Every User Should Check Now

By SARAH PEREZ of ReadWriteWeb

Published: January 20, 2010
In December, Facebook made a series of bold and controversial changes regarding the nature of its users' privacy on the social networking site. The company once known for protecting privacy to the point of exclusivity (it began its days as a network for college kids only - no one else even had access), now seemingly wants to compete with more open social networks like the microblogging media darling Twitter.

Those of you who edited your privacy settings prior to December's change have nothing to worry about - that is, assuming you elected to keep your personalized settings when prompted by Facebook's "transition tool." The tool, a dialog box explaining the changes, appeared at the top of Facebook homepages this past month with its own selection of recommended settings. Unfortunately, most Facebook users likely opted for the recommended settings without really understanding what they were agreeing to. If you did so, you may now be surprised to find that you inadvertently gave Facebook the right to publicize your private information including status updates, photos, and shared links.

Want to change things back? Read on to find out how.

1. Who Can See The Things You Share (Status Updates, Photo, Videos, etc.)

Probably the most critical of the "privacy" changes (yes, we mean those quotes sarcastically) was the change made to status updates. Although there's now a button beneath the status update field that lets you select who can view any particular update, the new Facebook default for this setting is "Everyone." And by everyone, they mean everyone.

If you accepted the new recommended settings then you voluntarily gave Facebook the right to share the information about the items you post with any user or application on the site. Depending on your search settings, you may have also given Facebook the right to share that information with search engines, too.

To change this setting back to something of a more private nature, do the following:

1. From your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at the top right and click "Privacy Settings" from the list that appears.
2. Click "Profile Information" from the list of choices on the next page.
3. Scroll down to the setting "Posts by Me." This encompasses anything you post, including status updates, links, notes, photos, and videos.
4. Change this setting using the drop-down box on the right. We recommend the "Only Friends" setting to ensure that only those people you've specifically added as a friend on the network can see the things you post.

2. Who Can See Your Personal Info

Facebook has a section of your profile called "personal info," but it only includes your interests, activities, and favorites. Other arguably more personal information is not encompassed by the "personal info" setting on Facebook's Privacy Settings page. That other information includes things like your birthday, your religious and political views, and your relationship status.

After last month's privacy changes, Facebook set the new defaults for this other information to viewable by either "Everyone" (for family and relationships, aka relationship status) or to "Friends of Friends" (birthday, religious and political views). Depending on your own preferences, you can update each of these fields as you see fit. However, we would bet that many will want to set these to "Only Friends" as well. To do so:

1. From your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at the top right and click "Privacy Settings" from the list that appears.
2. Click "Profile Information" from the list of choices on the next page.
3. The third, fourth, and fifth item listed on this page are as follows: "birthday," "religious and political views," and "family and relationship." Locking down birthday to "Only Friends" is wise here, especially considering information such as this is often used in identity theft.
4. Depending on your own personal preferences, you may or may not feel comfortable sharing your relationship status and religious and political views with complete strangers. And keep in mind, any setting besides "Only Friends" is just that - a stranger. While "Friends of Friends" sounds innocuous enough, it refers to everyone your friends have added as friends, a large group containing hundreds if not thousands of people you don't know. All it takes is one less-than-selective friend in your network to give an unsavory person access to this information.

3. What Google Can See - Keep Your Data Off the Search Engines

When you visit Facebook's Search Settings page, a warning message pops up. Apparently, Facebook wants to clear the air about what info is being indexed by Google. The message reads:

There have been misleading rumors recently about Facebook indexing all your information on Google. This is not true. Facebook created public search listings in 2007 to enable people to search for your name and see a link to your Facebook profile. They will still only see a basic set of information.

While that may be true to a point, the second setting listed on this Search Settings page refers to exactly what you're allowing Google to index. If the box next to "Allow" is checked, you're giving search engines the ability to access and index any information you've marked as visible by "Everyone." As you can see from the settings discussed above, if you had not made some changes to certain fields, you would be sharing quite a bit with the search engines...probably more information than you were comfortable with. To keep your data private and out of the search engines, do the following:

1. From your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at the top right and click "Privacy Settings" from the list that appears.
2. Click "Search" from the list of choices on the next page.
3. Click "Close" on the pop-up message that appears.
4. On this page, uncheck the box labeled "Allow" next to the second setting "Public Search Results." That keeps all your publicly shared information (items set to viewable by "Everyone") out of the search engines. If you want to see what the end result looks like, click the "see preview" link in blue underneath this setting.

Take 5 Minutes to Protect Your Privacy

While these three settings are, in our opinion, the most critical, they're by no means the only privacy settings worth a look. In a previous article (written prior to December's changes, so now out-of-date), we also looked at things like who can find you via Facebook's own search, application security, and more.

While you may think these sorts of items aren't worth your time now, the next time you lose out on a job because the HR manager viewed your questionable Facebook photos or saw something inappropriate a friend posted on your wall, you may have second thoughts. But why wait until something bad happens before you address the issue?

Considering that Facebook itself is no longer looking out for you, it's time to be proactive about things and look out for yourself instead. Taking a few minutes to run through all the available privacy settings and educating yourself on what they mean could mean the world of difference to you at some later point...That is, unless you agree with Facebook in thinking that the world is becoming more open and therefore you should too.

Paying £80 Million For Cristiano Ronaldo Was Idiotic – Former Real Madrid President Lorenzo Sanz

Sanz thinks no player is worth £80 million...

By Rupert Fryer

Jan 21, 2010 6:59:00 PM

Former Real Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz has publicly criticised current supremo Florentino Perez, branding the person responsible for paying Manchester United £80 million for Cristiano Ronaldo, “an idiot".

The former club president, who guided Real Madrid to two Champions League titles in 1998 and 2000 is quoted by Goal.com Spain as saying, “Either we are all fools or whoever paid that for Cristiano is an idiot. No player in the world is worth it."

“We are talking about the best players in the world,” he continued. “The best stadium in the world, this and that, because of everything that is expected with Real Madrid. That, for Cristiano Ronaldo, should be hard to take.”

Sanz went on to claim that his “ former team was equal to or better than this one," and that he didn’t have to pay enormous transfer fees for his star signings.

In a final jibe at the current squad, Sanz continued that his former “team was better, player for player and I would not change it for the current [squad], which unfortunately is worse than Barcelona."

5 Easy Steps to Stay Safe (and Private!) on Facebook

By SARAH PEREZ of ReadWriteWeb

Published: September 16, 2009
When the President of the United States warns schoolchildren to watch what they say and do on Facebook, you know that we've got a problem...and it's not one limited to the U.S.'s borders, either. People everywhere are mindlessly over-sharing on the world's largest social network, without a second thought as to who's reading their posts or what effect it could have on them further down the road. For example, did you know that 30% of today's employers are using Facebook to vet potential employees prior to hiring? In today's tough economy, the question of whether to post those embarrassing party pics could now cost you a paycheck in addition to a reputation. (Keep that in mind when tagging your friends' photos, too, won't you?)

But what can be done? It's not like you can just quit Facebook, right? No - and you don't have to either. You just need to take a few precautions.

Unbeknownst to most mainstream Facebook users, the social network actually offers a slew of privacy controls and security features which can help you batten down the hatches, so to speak. If used properly, you'll never have to worry about whether you should friend the boss and your mom. You can friend anyone you want while comfortable in the knowledge that not everyone gets to see everything you post.

The problem in implementing these privacy options is that they're just too confusing for most non-tech savvy people to handle. And often, folks don't want to bother to take the time to learn. To simplify the process, we're offering five easy steps you can take today to help make your Facebook experience safer, more secure, and more private.

Step 1: Make Friend Lists

Yes, it will take some time, especially if you're connected to a couple hundred friends already. But this step, while not the quickest, is fairly simple. And it will be one of the most useful things you can do on Facebook.

Friend lists, like they sound, are lists for categorizing your friends into various groups. The nice thing about this feature is that once you set these lists up, you won't have to do it again. We suggest that you put your work colleagues and professional acquaintances into a friend list designated "work," personal friends you're not very close with into a list called "Acquaintances," and people you're related to into a list called "Family." Those three main categories will separate out the groups of "friends" who you may want to hide some information from.

To create a friend list, click on "Friends" at the top of the Facebook homepage. In the left-hand column, click "Friends" again under the "Lists" section. Now you'll see a button at the top that says "Create New List". Click it. In the pop-up that appears, you can name your list and pick members. If you've ever shared an application with your friends, the process of doing this will be very familiar.

When you've finished making lists, you'll be able to use them when selecting who can see what (or who can't!) when configuring the security settings described below.

Step 2: Who Can See What on Your Profile

At the top right of Facebook, there's a menu that many people probably ignore: "Settings." But this menu is now going to become your best friend. To get started, hover you mouse over the Settings menu and click "Privacy Settings" from the list that appears. On the next page, click "Profile." This takes you to a page where you can configure who gets to see certain information on your profile.

Before making changes, think carefully about the sorts of things you want public and the things you want private. Should "everyone" get to see photos you're tagged in? Or would you like to limit this only to those you've specifically chosen as Facebook friends?

Underneath each section on this page (basic info, personal info, status, etc.), you can designate who gets to see that particular bit of information. For anyone not using custom lists (see step 1), the best thing to enter here is "Only Friends." Anything else opens up your profile information to people you may or may not know. For example, choosing "Everyone" makes that info public, "Friends of Friends" lets your friends' friends see it, "My Networks and Friends" opens up your info to anyone in your networks - that means anyone in your city, your high school, your college, a professional organization you listed, etc.

You can also block certain groups from seeing these sections, too. On any item that offers an "Edit Custom Settings" option, you can click that link to display a pop-up box where you can choose people or lists to block (see where it says "Except these people"). If you haven't made custom lists as explained in step 1 above, you can enter individual names here instead. (Sorry, mom, dad, boss - this is where you get blocked.)

Step 3: Who Can See Your Address and Phone Number

Did you list your address and phone number on Facebook? While that's a handy feature, you may not want everyone you friended to have this information. To access this configuration page, you follow the same steps as above in step 2 to display the Profile Privacy page. You'll notice that the page has two tabs at the top - click on the one that reads "Contact information."

As previously described above, you can again use the drop-down lists provided to designate who gets to see what and/or block certain people or lists from viewing this information. The sections on this page include "IM Screen Name," "Mobile Phone," "Other Phone," "Current Address," "Website," and your email.

Dinagyang 2010

Dinagyang Fiesta 2010 List of Tribes for Dinagyang Ati and Kasadyahan

The Aliwan Fiesta is the ultimate festival showdown in the Philippines. During previous Aliwan Fiestas, Iloilo sends two participants (one of Dinagyang Ati and Kasadyahan) to compete with other festival champions in the country.

Here’s the list of tribes for the upcoming Dinagyang 2010:

Dinagyang Ati 2010 Competition:

3237799239 71a63d1b21 Dinagyang Fiesta 2010 List of Tribes for Dinagyang Ati and Kasadyahan

* Tribu Molave
* Tribu Ilonganon
* Tribu Aninipay
* Tribu Atub-Atub
* Tribu Pag-asa
* Tribu Bantu
* Tribu Salognon
* Tribu Himal-us
* Tribu Panagat
* Tribu Paghidaet
* Tribu Milagrosa
* Tribu Silak
* Tribu Bola-Bola
* Tribu Pana-ad
* Tribu Pan-ay
* Tribu Angola

Let’s see if two-year defending champion, Tribu Paghidaet still will be able to secure their crown this year from fierce competitors Tribu Bola-bola, Silak, and Ilonganon. Tribu Pan-ay is also another group to watch as reported in Byahilo.com due to shuffling of principals in two high schools in the city. Also, two of the “mediocre” tribes last year were not permitted to join the Dinagyang 2010.

Kasadyahan 2010 Competition:

3238640686 e7244498f1 Dinagyang Fiesta 2010 List of Tribes for Dinagyang Ati and Kasadyahan

* Tribu Pantat of Zarraga
* Tribu Tangyan of Igbaras
* Tribu Tambubu of Ajuy
* Tribu Tubong-Tubong of Tubungan
* Tribu Pandayan of Badiangan
* Tribu Tinuom of Cabatuan
* Tribu Kasag of Banate
* Tribu Gimanban of New Lucena

Tribu Kasag of Banate was declared the champion of last year’s Dinagyang Festival. They were able to land second place in the Aliwan Fiesta 2009, even edging out Tribu Paghidaet, which placed third. More entries for the kasadyahan competition are expected to be revealed in the next few weeks.

Dinagyang 2010

January is fast approaching and three of the country’s biggest festivals are set to unfold! The highlights of Sinulog 2010 in Cebu is scheduled January 17. The Kalibo Ati-atihan 2010 is also scheduled on the same week. On january 24-25 Iloilo City will be hosting the annual Dinagyang 2010 Festival.

This year, Dinagyang Foundation has received registrations from 16 tribes. A far cry from the 20+ tribes during the 90’s. But despite fewer number of tribes, the quality of performances will always be topnotch.

This 2010, the participating tribes for the Dinagyang competition are: Himal-us, Silak, Ilonganon, Tribu Aninipay, Paghidaet, Molave, Panagat, Pag-asa, Angola, Bantu, Atub-Atub, Panaad, Pan-ay, Bola-Bola, Salognon and Milagrosa. The tribes competition is set on January 24, 2010.

I am seeing a tight competition between the defending champion, Tribu Paghidaet, last year’s first runner up Tribu Bola Bola, Tribu Ilonganon and Tribu Pan-ay who was formerly known as Tribu ni San Pedro.

Some insiders in Jalandoni National High School (Tribu Ilonganon) bared that the tribe’s original choreographer who gave them 2 championships, Rommel Flogen has moved to Tribu Pan-ay (San Pedro). Tribu Pan-ay’s former choreographer Edwin Duero is now handling the Tribu Ilonganon.

This happened, as sources said, when the principals of both schools were reshuffled a few months back. I have been hearing some negative feedbacks about Ilonganon’s routine for Dinagyang 2010 but I won’t comment on that matter until I have finally seen it.

I am hoping for a very exciting Dinagyang Ati-Ati performance during my birthday!

Dinagyang Festival

The Dinagyang is a religious and cultural festival in Iloilo City, Philippines held on the fourth Sunday of January, or right after the Sinulog In Cebu and the Ati-Atihan in Aklan. It is held both to honor the Santo Niño and to celebrate the arrival on Panay of Malay settlers and the subsequent selling of the island to them by the Atis.

Dinagyang began after Rev. Fr. Ambrosio Galindez of a local Roman Catholic parish introduced the devotion to Santo Niño in November 1967. In 1968, a replica of the original image of the Santo Niño de Cebu was brought to Iloilo by Fr. Sulpicio Enderez as a gift to the Parish of San Jose. The faithful, led by members of Confradia del Santo Niño de Cebu, Iloilo Chapter, worked to give the image a fitting reception starting at the Iloilo Airport and parading down the streets of Iloilo.

In the beginning, the observance of the feast was confined to the parish. The Confradia patterned the celebration on the Ati-atihan of Ibajay, Aklan, where natives dance in the streets, their bodies covered with soot and ashes, to simulate the Atis dancing to celebrate the sale of Panay. It was these tribal groups who were the prototype of the present festival.

In 1977, the Marcos government ordered the various regions of the Philippines to come up with festivals or celebrations that could boost tourism and development. The City of Iloilo readily identified the Iloilo Ati-atihan as its project. At the same time the local parish could no longer handle the growing challenges of the festival.

The Dinagyang is divided into three Major events: Ati-Ati Street Dancing, Kasadyahan Street Dancing and Miss Dinagyang.

Today, the main part of the festival consists of a number of "tribes", called "tribus", who are supposed to be Ati tribe members dancing in celebration. There are a number of requirements, including that the performers must paint their skin brown and that only indigenous materials can be used for the costumes. All dances are performed to drum music. Many tribes are organized by the local high schools. Some tribes receive a subsidiary from the organizers and recruit private sponsors, with the best tribes receiving the most. The current Ati population of Iloilo is not involved with any of the tribes nor are they involved in the festival in any other way.

Dinagyang was voted as the best Tourism Event for 2006, 2007 and 2008 by the Association of Tourism Officers in the Philippines. It is the first festival in the world to get the support of the United Nations for the promotion of the Millennium Development Goals, and cited by the Asian Development Bank as Best Practice on government, private sector & NGO cooperations.

Where Giants Dance and Crash in Japan

Ko Sasaki for The New York Times

Sumo wrestlers performing the opening ceremony on Jan. 11 at a tournament at the Kokugikan, Japan’s national sumo stadium in Tokyo.

By ALIDA BECKER

Published: January 24, 2010

AT the edge of the balcony, a tiny woman was screaming. The elderly couple in the next row were jumping up and down. Below us, all around the ring at the Kokugikan, Japan’s national sumo stadium in Tokyo, a roaring crowd hurled seat cushions into the air. My husband and I looked at each other in amazement. After two weeks of travel among the intently well-behaved, rigorously unflappable Japanese, were we about to have a peek behind that decorous facade?

Well, yes and no.

Certainly the huge, nearly naked wrestlers had little to hide. But even in their diaper-like loincloths, they maintained a dignified swagger. And while the crowd erupted in spontaneous shouts and demonstrations, the competition was carefully choreographed, full of rituals and pageantry. Nobody argued with the referee, not even the loud fan in the back who had brought an ample supply of beer. As for the apparently no-holds-barred wrestling — a flurry of pushing and grappling, like a skirmish between the schoolyard’s two biggest bullies — it was preceded and concluded by courtly bowing.

Like so much we’d already encountered in Japan, sumo turned out to be a mix of the seemingly approachable and the utterly confounding. It’s hard, after all, to let your hair down when it’s arranged in a topknot whose traditional shape hasn’t changed for centuries.

If cricket is a slow-moving mystery to most Americans, then sumo — in which bouts are usually over in a matter of seconds — is a puzzlement of a whole different order. The basic goal is simple: force your opponent to be the first either to step out of the roughly 15-foot-diameter ring or touch the ground with anything but the soles of his feet. The sport has been based in the Ryogoku neighborhood of Tokyo, on the east bank of the Sumida River, since the 17th century, although the 1980s-era stadium, which seats 11,000, looks as if it might have been teleported from Cleveland or Omaha. Except, of course, for the drum tower out front, a flimsy box on stilts where men bang out a fierce rhythm high above the crowds.

Inside, past the women handing out souvenir fans and the concessions selling hot dogs, a first glimpse of the ring brings back memories of the old Spectrum in Philadelphia. But unlike Mike Tyson or Marvin Hagler, these gigantic brawlers retreat to their corners not to be toweled off and patched up but to toss around handfuls of purifying salt and sip water from a bamboo ladle, then delicately pat their mouths on a folded cloth. The referee, dressed in a brilliantly colored kimono complete with a tall black headdress and a ceremonial fan, might have wandered in from the set of a Kabuki play. Up above him, where a Jumbotron might be, is the stylized roof of a Shinto shrine.

And that’s where the real explanations begin: sumo’s roots lie far back in Japanese history, as a performance to entertain and appease the spirits of Shinto, the animistic native religion whose shrines are still tended throughout the country, often co-existing with Buddhist temples. Established as a court ritual in medieval Japan, sumo wrestling gradually became a means of employment for samurai warriors in times of peace and emerged as a professional sport in the early 20th century.

Even now, though, it can seem to the outsider like a highly stylized kind of performance art. There’s a strangely lulling rhythm to the parades of contestants, the marching displays of the sponsors’ banners, the solemn recitations, even the ferocious stomping and high sideways kicking before the individual wrestlers square off. Then, in an instant, the pace changes: there’s a flurry of movement, and one wrestler is hurriedly sent off in defeat. (To add insult to injury, the loser is called the shini-tai, or “dead body.”)

Sumo is both high-stakes and hierarchical. The wrestlers live in training stables near the stadium, each one run by a master who regulates everything from what they can eat to what they can wear. Junior members act as servants to more highly rated wrestlers and enter the sport at the lowest level of its six divisions. They can move up only by performing well in the half-dozen tournaments held throughout the year — and, in the same way, their superiors can be bumped down.

Each tournament lasts 15 days, with the lowest-ranking entrants beginning competition at 8:30 in the morning. The audience grows as the day progresses, with the top two divisions competing from midafternoon until around 6 in the evening. There are no weight classes, but finesse can sometimes foil sheer bulk: an agile smaller wrestler, if he’s sufficiently skilled, can catch a 400-pound behemoth off balance. Then again, that jelly-bellied guy who looks like Santa on steroids may have the arms and legs of a body builder. Good luck getting him to move even an inch.

Foreigners can be admitted to sumo stables, but the sport’s governing body has acted to limit their numbers. The two currently active yokozuna, or grand champions, are from Mongolia, and among their strongest challengers are wrestlers from Bulgaria and Georgia. In 1993, Chad Rowan, a Hawaiian fighting under the name Akebono, became the first foreign-born competitor to achieve grand-champion status.

And what about the tournament we attended in September? That pillow-throwing melee was caused by the upset of a Mongolian favorite, who on the final day ended up tied with his rival at 14 wins and 1 loss each. In a playoff, the baby-faced yokozuna called Asashoryu celebrated his 29th birthday by collecting his 24th championship cup, using what The Japan Times described as “an underhanded frontal belt grip” and a “beltless arm throw.”

I’m still not entirely sure what that involves. But I am sure it’s not the sort of thing you ought to try at home.

DRUMS, PAGEANTRY AND BOWS

Championship sumo tournaments are held six times a year, rotating among Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka. For the current Tokyo tournament, which ends Jan. 24, tickets ranged in price from 14,300 Japanese yen, or about $154 at a rate of 89 yen to the dollar, for ringside boxes with Japanese-style seating (on the floor) to 2,100 yen, or about $23, for general admission in the balcony, where the seating is Western style. The next tournament starts March 14 in Osaka.

The English-language Web site of the Grand Sumo Association (sumo.or.jp/eng/) has detailed — and somewhat mind-boggling — information on how and when tickets may be bought. The Lawson and FamilyMart convenience stores in Tokyo also sell tickets, as does the Japan Travel Bureau, a national tourist agency with offices throughout the country (jtbusa.com/en/default.asp). In addition, hotel concierges can usually arrange tickets for early tournament rounds on fairly short notice.

The Web site of The Japan Times, a daily English-language newspaper, provides useful background reporting as well as maps and directions to the sumo stadiums, at japantimes.co.jp/sports/sumo_schedule.html.