Facebook, Google, you name it: a tool to protect your privacy

For some time I've been thinking, and actually collecting notes, to write a series of articles on how to protect your privacy within different environments, such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo, etc.  The I read an article in this month's PC World that makes writing this series unnecessary.   Instead of learning how to protec your privacy, there is a free application called PrivacyFix that encapsulates all the privacy rules for many applications.  What you do is start the tool and let it tell you what your settings are in these environments.  It also tells you what your privacy risk is for each setting.  AND, incredibly, if you want to "fix" the setting for more privacy, you can click "FIX".  That takes you inside the particular application, directly to the setting, where you can change it.   I can't begin to express how neat that is.

Here is a picture of PrivacyFix's Facebook guidance page:

(Click on the picture for a larger image.)  Note the evaluations on the right side- Green means you are OK, orange means you should consider "fixing" the setting.  Click "Fix" and you will be taken to the Facebook application and to the web page within Facebook containing the setting.  

Also note the other information on the page.  You can read it for yourself.  

Download PrivacyFix.  Then you will be taken to a web page "setup," or something like that. Click the large setup button, and you will get your results.  

I like this app.  Saves me a lot of time writing blog entries on fixing your privacy settings.