Privacy is one thing that everybody is concerned about, the information we share, the activity we do online is completely at the disposal of an individual if one is not careful.

Facebook has brought a host of changes within the layout, the privacy settings and visual appearance within the past six months and is continuing the same. A recent change that I practically saw and implemented was The Timeline Feature.

An enhanced sharing module was also introduced by Facebook known as Frictionless Sharing. Earlier if one needed to Like, Tweet, or Digg anything you needed to push a button to enable safe sharing, but with Frictionless Sharing everything that one practically does from reading, to listening music or watching a video is practically shared over an activity feed or wall without intimation. It also brings focus not only to Facebook as a social media network, but also to various brands as the above said sharing method could be implemented across varied channels.

Considering what one needs to share all major Brands, Firms, and Media Companies should consider whether to integrate the same or not as it can adversely effect a users association with the brand and the brands reputation.

Lets take an example of an application that implements the same, how does your privacy get affected, and how to prevent it from happening. Amidst the new Facebook Applications developed and inclination towards content and media aggregation include Social Reading Applications like Washing Post Social Reader, WSJ and many others. All applications give rich content through various channels but compromise on the privacy for the user.

The image above is a screen shot of my profile, under news section its shows some posts that I read recently as across various reading applications, all the information I read is available to all friends unless I turned the feature off. Although now, few applications have started to give the option to set sharing settings, which earlier was neither asked and one had to manually do the same. If you are a part of the early implementors of social reading applications you can disable sharing by following some simple steps mentioned below.

• Login to www.facebook.com
• Press the button right next home button on the right corner and choose account settings.
• On the next page on the left you will see the option “Apps”
• Select the application i.e. The Guardian (Check The Screen Shot Below)

•  Remove “Add app activity to your timeline” by clicking on the close button on immediate right, also choose can see your posts and activity from the last section. It can be public, friends only or custom depending on your sharing settings.