Oh the Places you will go – and your Facebook friends will know

20 August 2010 | By the Partners in Social Media

With location-based networks taking the social media world by storm, it’s no surprise Facebook was quick to develop its own version of social check-ins. Facebook Places was released late Wednesday evening in select regions across the country and became available in the Topeka area late last night.

Similar to networks like Foursquare and Gowalla, Places allows users to check-in at locations using the Facebook application (currently iPhone only) or accessing their mobile websites (available on any phone that supports W3 geolocation). Users can see if friends are nearby, view those friends who have previously checked in and receive notifications of nearby businesses that may be of interest. Check-ins will be posted on status updates on the Places page for that location and on the wall of tagged friends.

Yes, “tagged friends.” One major difference between Places and other networks is the ability to tag your friends when you check-in. So if Joe and Susie go to dinner and Joe uses Places, he can also tag Susie – thereby posting a comment to her wall notifying anyone who can see her wall of Susie’s exact location. This may seem innocent enough, but there could be any number of reasons why Susie (or you) doesn’t want to broadcast her location.

Here are four easy steps to hiding your location:

1. Access your Privacy Settings in the Account drop down tab on your page, then select the Customize settings link near the bottom of the page.

2. If you’re not comfortable with other people checking in and seeing you are also checked in, go to the ‘Include me in “People here Now” after I check in’ option and uncheck the Enable box.

3. On the same page, select the drop down menu next to “Places I check in” and choose who you’d like to share your location with: Everyone, Friends and Network, Friends of Friends, Friends or Customize. If you don’t want anyone to see your location, we recommend going with the Customize option and then selecting “Only Me” from the “These People” drop down menu. Don’t forget to save your settings!

4. Finally, if you’re not comfortable with the thought of friends tagging you, scroll down to the “Things others share” section on the Privacy page. Then select Disable from the drop down menu next to “Friends can check me in to Places.” Now you’re the only one that can check yourself into a location.