You may have your friends in groups on Facebook so that when you share a piece of information you can pick which group(s) will see it. For instance, you may post about a personal accomplishment that is more relevant to your family than your co-workers or old classmates, so there’s no need to share with everyone. Basically, tailored share settings on Facebook are great if you only want to divulge some of your personal details to specific people.
Unfortunately, the Facebook social ads can easily draw attention to details about your personal preferences to everyone who has you added as a friend. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, these ads appear near the right-hand side of the page and will say “John Smith likes this.” It’s true that people could just navigate to your Facebook profile to see the things you’re interested in, but at least that’s not a literal advertisement with your name attached to it popping up on their own pages.
So instead of telling everyone on your Facebook that you watch Jersey Shore as a guilty pleasure, just disable your name from appearing next to any of the advertisements. Here’s how:
Step 1: Log in to your Facebook account on the Web.
Step 2: Open the small menu with the down arrow to the right of your name in the top right-hand corner and select Account Settings.
(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET)
Step 3: On the left-hand side, choose Facebook Ads from the list.
Step 4: Click the link at the bottom that says Edit social ads setting
Step 5: Select No One from the drop-down list on the next page and press Save Changes.
After this adjustment you’ll stop sharing information about your interests with everyone on your friends list.
What do you think: are the names on ads useful to anyone, or are they just one more way of broadcasting unnecessary information?
(Via Ghacks)