Can disconnected FB friends see my stuff

[peterpan123]

Hello, I unfriended somebody but I got notifications when he posted something. How come? Similarly, can that person see my FB activities (e.g. post photos, being tagged into photos, made comments, etc.)

About a year ago, I made a setting that people could not search me but now people can. Don't know what happened.

 

[danny_w]

I never trust Facebook settings; always assume that anything that you post to FB is public, no matter the settings. I have not been on FB in years but many years ago I had friends (and my own son) tell me that their settings would not allow me to see them but still I could see everything. Since then I cancelled my FB account and assume that anything that I ever put up there is public. Don't ever post anything that yoou don't want everyone to see, even your boss (or maybe especially your boss!).

 

[C DM]

There is an option to follow people if they allow that and there are options to post things on Facebook so that more than just your friends see them (like friends of friends or even just public). Depends on the settings your friend has set up for his/her posts (and perhaps if you are still following them, even if you are not friends anymore).

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I never trust Facebook settings; always assume that anything that you post to FB is public, no matter the settings. I have not been on FB in years but many years ago I had friends (and my own son) tell me that their settings would not allow me to see them but still I could see everything. Since then I cancelled my FB account and assume that anything that I ever put up there is public. Don't ever post anything that yoou don't want everyone to see, even your boss (or maybe especially your boss!).

Well, I have never had a Facebook account, partly because I never really got the idea of making a running commentary on your own life, but mainly because I value my privacy, and I have long thought FB to be rather careless and downright cavalier on such matters.

 

[danny_w]

Well, I have never had a Facebook account, partly because I never really got the idea of making a running commentary on your own life, but mainly because I value my privacy, and I have long thought FB to be rather careless and downright cavalier on such matters.

Exactly, they certainly have that reputation.

 

[Huntn]

There is an option to follow people if they allow that and there are options to post things on Facebook so that more than just your friends see them (like friends of friends or even just public). Depends on the settings your friend has set up for his/her posts (and perhaps if you are still following them, even if you are not friends anymore).

The OP can go to their FB settings and "un-follow" them. And FYI if you are sick of seeing an endless stream of mind numbing noise, you can do this without de-friending them if you desire.

 

[samiwas]

Hello, I unfriended somebody but I got notifications when he posted something. How come? Similarly, can that person see my FB activities (e.g. post photos, being tagged into photos, made comments, etc.)

About a year ago, I made a setting that people could not search me but now people can. Don't know what happened.

What notifications are you seeing? Are you seeing them in your sidebar feed on the right side (desktop version), or in your actual notifications? If it's in the sidebar, you will see stuff from all sorts of people you don't even know, if they commented on one of your friend's posts or something.

As for the settings, it's best to check them frequently, as it seems when they update to add the next useless money-making feature, these things change.

 

[FieldingMellish]

I'd not been on Facebook in four years. I recently logged on to locate a distant family member. There were 80 friend requests and a long list of people I'd known wishing me a happy birthday dating back a couple years and who were obviously prompted to do so by Facebook programming. I find this overwhelming with Facebook as the complicated rah-rah camp counselor furnishing what I feel is the equivalent of bloatware on the net.

 

[Savor]

Well, I have never had a Facebook account, partly because I never really got the idea of making a running commentary on your own life, but mainly because I value my privacy, and I have long thought FB to be rather careless and downright cavalier on such matters.

^ This.

I was into the whole social network thing when MySpace peaked between 2006-2008 although I got an account for it and Friendster when my cousin told me about them in late-2004, a year after they were born. I didn't get an account for Facebook and Twitter until 2009. I left FB that same year, came back briefly in 2012, and then left again. I have a few dummy accounts since I can't use Wi-Fi in this one mall without an FB account. But I generally can't stand Facebook. I enjoyed my life online during the pre-social network era. More anonymous.

I prefer forums, comment boxes, and Viber. More privacy and more anonymous. Alot of poseurs pretending their life is better than it really is. I rather waste time watching random YouTube videos than snoop around for funny comments, posts, photo albums, and hoping my postings receives likes. I know someone who had 4000 friends on FB and he is a big anti-social in real life.

I love how Internet evolved and we can get media content for free that we used to try to accumulate back in the 90's and 00's. Hobby collecting for music and movies is dead to me thanks to the net. But I also don't like how human interaction evolved into thanks to the net. This is why I don't spend as much on my smartphones either. I want to ABSORB the real moments in real life. Not stare at a screen and act rude around people by not paying any attention to what is going on around me. There is alot more things to see and experience in life than just stare at a small screen and browse Facebook or play Clash of Clans all day.

I am an 80's kid. A part of me wished to be born in 1920 and die by 2000. I feel this century, I am not really missing out on selfies, social media, online debates, and media content. I believe my grandfather and father had much better teen years than me. Media content was better although hardware was less capable. People learned to sing and dance and not become famous from DubSmash! I might as well become an air guitarist! Back then, plenty of womanizing and no worry of AIDS. And women dressed decent. It wasn't perfect. Boil our food. Great Depression. Racism. But I wished I came from the same gen as Captain America - The GREATEST GENERATION.

Born 1920. Died 2000.

I wouldn't be missing much during the next 15 years except iPhones and other time wasting nonsense like Facebook.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

^ This.

I was into the whole social network thing when MySpace peaked between 2006-2008 although I got an account for it and Friendster when my cousin told me about them in late-2004, a year after they were born. I didn't get an account for Facebook and Twitter until 2009. I left FB that same year, came back briefly in 2012, and then left again. I have a few dummy accounts since I can't use Wi-Fi in this one mall without an FB account. But I generally can't stand Facebook. I enjoyed my life online during the pre-social network era. More anonymous.

I prefer forums, comment boxes, and Viber. More privacy and more anonymous. Alot of poseurs pretending their life is better than it really is. I rather waste time watching random YouTube videos than snoop around for funny comments, posts, photo albums, and hoping my postings receives likes. I know someone who had 4000 friends on FB and he is a big anti-social in real life.

I love how Internet evolved and we can get media content for free that we used to try to accumulate back in the 90's and 00's. Hobby collecting for music and movies is dead to me thanks to the net. But I also don't like how human interaction evolved into thanks to the net. This is why I don't spend as much on my smartphones either. I want to ABSORB the real moments in real life. Not stare at a screen and act rude around people by not paying any attention to what is going on around me. There is alot more things to see and experience in life than just stare at a small screen and browse Facebook or play Clash of Clans all day.

I am an 80's kid. A part of me wished to be born in 1920 and die by 2000. I feel this century, I am not really missing out on selfies, social media, online debates, and media content. I believe my grandfather and father had much better teen years than me. Media content was better although hardware was less capable. People learned to sing and dance and not become famous from DubSmash! I might as well become an air guitarist! Back then, plenty of womanizing and no worry of AIDS. And women dressed decent. It wasn't perfect. Boil our food. Great Depression. Racism. But I wished I came from the same gen as Captain America - The GREATEST GENERATION.

Born 1920. Died 2000.

I wouldn't be missing much during the next 15 years except iPhones and other time wasting nonsense like Facebook.

While I can see some of the attractions of the period you have mentioned, I would argue that if you were black, or lower class, or female, life wasn't particularly good in the early part of the 20th century. Attitudes, and was began to be challenged and changed from the 60s onwards, and social economic and educational opportunities opened up for minorities and women.

Re FB and other forms of social media, I think that this is an utterly transformational time in tech, and in how tech has had an impact on society and how we engage with and communicate with one another. This is a revolution in social and economic (and doubles political, too) relations, one on a par with the invention of paper and the printing press, one that we have barely begun to be able to identify the effects and ramifications on these changes on our lives.

As with all sorts of transformational change, it is both a challenge and a threat, an astounding marvel and a cause for concern; above all, it is extraordinary to live through it and to witness it. I am, (or have been) a historian by profession, and mapping and observing change is something I find fascinating.

Having said that, there is nothing wrong with setting - and enforcing - your own boundaries, and policing them diligently, especially in the world of social media where your details are a source of endless fascination, not to mention offering possibilities for income generation, to a wide variety of the behemoths that run the platforms on which social media can take place.