Facebook Bug Posting Private Messages on Timelines – Real or Hoax?

This week, there were many reports that Facebook had a new bug – one that was allowing old private messages (!) to be posted to one’s Timeline. It was quickly dismissed as a hoax, but many people have insisted that they were indeed affected.

Representatives for Facebook assure us that there is no hoax, and that the confusion lies with people mistaking wall posts between friends for actual private messages. Here’s what the rep had to say to CNET:

“Every report we’ve seen, we’ve gone back and checked,” the spokesperson to CNET. “We haven’t seen one report that’s been confirmed. A lot of the confusion is because before 2008 there were no likes and no comments on wall posts. People went back and forth with wall posts instead of having a conversation.”

Seems plausible, but the ruckus hasn’t quite died down yet. It never hurts to check out your page and make sure all looks well, and periodically review your Privacy settings. Here are some how-to tips to get your Facebook Privacy settings in tip-top shape and control who-sees-what on your postings:

Hide a particular post, or delete it completely. Hover over the right-hand side of the post and click on the pencil icon. Select Hide from Timeline or Delete.

Update your privacy settings. From your profile page, click on Privacy Settings from the little arrow next to Home,  in the upper right-hand corner of the page. Select Timeline and Tagging, Edit Settings. Decide now who you want to be able to see your postings.

Control privacy from even old postings. While in Privacy Settings, select Limit the Audience for Past Posts. Even if you had made old postings public – or let Friends of Friends see them – you can now edit permissions to only Friends.

Have you seen any private message postings on your Timeline?