Circle Hack: Get circles in Facebook like Google +

If you have been raving about the Circles feature in Google +, you now have the option of having the same in Facebook too. This comes courtesy a Facebook application, called Circle Hack (www.circlehack.com).

To use this, first go to the website, www.circlehack.com

Allow the application access as you normally do for any other Facebook application.

Once logged in, you will be presented with a page where there are two distinct sections. The first section, shows your friends, and the bottom section, shows circles. You can select an appropriate circle, and add them to the circle or group.

Once you have finished adding or grouping your friends in circles, you can click on the ‘Create List’ link that appears in the center of your new circle. This new list is now listed as an option in the ‘Friends’ section.

While this sounds to be great, there are some minor (or major) problems. For starters, you simply cannot remove a friend from a list by dragging them out of it. Deleting circles is also not possible. You also have to change privacy settings, by logging in to Facebook

All in all, a nice start – but a long way to go!

Ensure privacy on Facebook with a simple tool

As a normal Facebook user, you would want to control who has access to your wall posts. Most of the times, we are confused why our friend’s friend can see our wall posts – even if the friend’s friend is not directly connected to us.

While there are enough privacy controls in Facebook, a majority of these are so complex, that it is extremely tough for an average user to implement them.
Is there a simpler option? Yes, there is. Head over to a simple but great website called www.reclaimprivacy.org

Instead of reading, implementing and interpreting hundreds of privacy rules, this website gives us a simple and clutter free way to understand the areas where we can be vulnerable and weak with respect to privacy on Facebook.

All you have to do is go to this website, and drag the bookmark into your Firefox browser. Next, log on to your Facebook user account, and click the ‘Scan for Privacy’ bookmark. For me, it was an eye opener.

The website reveals the key areas where Facebook can share information such as contacts, connections or photos with tags to the public. It also looks at the kind of applications that are connected to your Facebook account. It then classifies the areas from where information could be leaked.

Using this website, one can then proceed to change the insecure settings, as pointed out by the website.

Check out the website at:
www.reclaimprivacy.org