Protect your privacy on Facebook and elsewhere

A Javascript developer has fashioned a handy, easy-to-use tool to help you protect your privacy settings on Facebook and other social networks. And it's free.

"Our mission is to promote privacy awareness on Facebook and elsewhere. This website provides an independent and open tool for scanning your Facebook privacy settings," says reclaimprivacy.org, which supplies the neat little scanner.

The site also includes links to informative articles, such as: "7 Things to Stop Doing Now on Facebook."

They're all the creation of Matt Pizzimenti (left), a developer who has several interesting open-source projects going at once. The Michigan University graduate, who lives in Palo Alto, California, and has done consulting work for Apple, is co-founder of Olark, which he says is "helping small businesses leverage social media to communicate better with customers."

Some of the more cautious Facebook users apparently have been surprised by what his scanning tool has detected.

"The way that Facebook operates, you have to be vigilant about your privacy settings," Pizzimenti says. "In a sense it's their product and they have the right to change the settings, but I think they are doing a very poor job of communicating to users and doing right by them."

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