Facebook Status Privacy Setting

Recently, Cathy has been mentioning Facebook statuses she's posted that I seem to be missing. She is one of a few people for whom FB actually sends me a text when she updates, and still I wasn't remembering the ones she's been bringing up.

She told me she'd posted something Sunday that was a secret-ish message to Everett, and he had replied, because he knew it was meant for him. I knew I hadn't seen that status, so I was very confused. Finally I checked, and I haven't seen one update from her since February 21.

After some sleuthing, we figured out that somehow her updates got set to show only to a group she set up called "Old Boyfriends." (Wait! Weren't we just talking about this?! I'm taking away Cathy's tequila...)

I know how this setting change happens. I post local updates to my group called "Austin Friends" and Facebook will keep that privacy setting as the new default until I switch it back. That is NOT the expected behavior. The default you've set up in your privacy settings should be the default. But no. So remember to change that, if you make a special post to a certain group now and then.

She had accidentally mucked up the privacy on a status update while using the mobile app, and it's been posting only to "old boyfriends" ever since. It's a large group (hehe), but she definitely noticed a big drop in comments. Now she's back to the normal "friends" setting!