These days, the way you interact on Facebook just might make or break that job opportunity that you have been hoping for. When your potential employer sees those pics of you, that you don’t quite remember, from that thing back in January that you didn’t even want to go to, they start to waver and then don’t call back. I, for one, don’t want this to happen to any of you — and neither does BIT System Inc., who developed the free S.N.A.P. iPhone app. Social Network Analyzer for Privacy, or S.N.A.P., is designed to point out the holes in your privacy on Facebook.
This app lacks beauty, but truly makes up for it in function. Apparently to ensure that this app remains free, they put an ad banner on the bottom of the interface. Upon opening, it will ask you to connect to Facebook. Sign in and you are on your way. It will then “grade” you on various aspects of your profile. Your presence on the web will be evaluated in categories such as “Albums,” “Status Updates,” “Events,” and more and the score will reflect how private, or how exposed, your profile is.
It goes a step further than a simple D+ on your privacy level. It will tell you what each grade means for your personal privacy. It will also show you the areas that you need to adjust if you would like to maintain more privacy within the world of Facebook. It will have a breakdown in each category to show you where you may be exposed too much. Along with this, it will give you tips on how Facebook acts in any given situation and what you can do to maintain privacy.
There is also keyword search functionality. This is located in the top right-hand corner. Here, you can look for those words on the “black list” that you should never be using (in the presence of authority figures), and see where each instance of that word appears throughout the entirety of your profile. This is a very nifty function if you ask me.
This app is a great idea; more people should take Facebook privacy a little more seriously. If you were wondering, I got a B+.
(Note: App does not yet have Facebook “Places” integration.)
