I just visited Baxters FB page from the addy at the bottom of his sig.
I was able to view all his photos and profile page, etc. without asking to join as a Friend. Is that what giving out the addy does? Bypasses the Add as Friend step?

I'm not a wuss that requires people to be a friend to view my page like most people

It depends on how each person has his privacy settings set, I think.

And, FB has just simplified privacy settings. I'm set for Friends Only and Friends of Friends. Still, some basic info remains "public."

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Could not resist.

Edit: So, I'm cruising LeTubes and run across this: Facebook Privacy Policy Switch Makes Users Feel Hoodwinked I don't use FB, probably never will, so I have not idea how valid this stuff is. Still, it would make me uneasy, for sure.

What they did was to simplify the privacy settings...

Before yesterday, you had to go to several tabs, and make one of about 4 privacy choices on a couple-three dozen different items. That added up to quite a lot of diligence that needed to be paid.

Now it's down to what, maybe 8 items?

The problem I have with it is that the new, reset Default choices are wide-open, free-for-all "Let's let everybody see everything."

I selected "old settings" for everything, since I had already made the choices I wanted.

But how many people will just blow right through the new dialogues without even thinking about them?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8405334.stm

Facebook faces criticism on privacy change
Critics say people could accidentally share too much information

Digital rights groups and bloggers have heaped criticism on Facebook's changed privacy policy.

Critics said the changes were unwelcome and "nudged" people towards sharing updates with the wider web and made them findable via search engines.

The changes were introduced on 9 December via a pop-up that asked users to update privacy settings.

Facebook said the changes help members manage updates they wanted to share, not trick them into revealing too much.

"Facebook is nudging the settings toward the 'disclose everything' position," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the US Electronic Privacy Information Center (Epic). "That's not fair from the privacy perspective."

After the initial one time page they are putting up, if you go to your settings there's still a dozen options with all sorts of options for those, and a Customize to get to more.

Yeah, most people will just say okay instead of using old settings. I've just always been wide open though like Sarge, so I don't really know if anything is different now on the Settings page.

Much ado about nothing it seems.

I didn't read it that way. Seems they have made it easier to conceal what you wish. Are these people who can't read, decide, and then click the appropriate button? If so, they should not be allowed anywhere near a computer.

That's fine, Reboot, if that's the way you want it.

But I don't like the fact that they made wholesale changes to EVERYBODY'S settings. Even for somebody who always reads everything, looks at EVERY possible choice, and configures stuff through well-considered reasoning, there was quite a lot to pay attention to with the previous style of preferences panels, and they were kind of confusing. But the point is: Many of us DID go to the trouble to wade through the prefs settings.

The smart thing would have been to throw an alert, with as simple an explanation about how things are changing as they could muster, BUT to keep users’ settings the way they were.