Privacy Settings on Myspace: What you need to know

At Myspace, we understand the importance of privacy and allowing you to control your information. Here's a quick overview of our simplified privacy settings to help you create a personalized environment.

Don't worry—we aren't forcing you to share any information that you didn't share before. We just want you to be "in the know" about what the privacy settings are, how to use them, and how they affect the types of information you share.

What is What?

Your Basic Profile Information consists of your profile picture, your numerical friend ID, your vanity URL if you choose one, your stated location, your gender and age, your display name, and your real name (if you choose to display it). As always, this information is public, which means it is available to everyone and will be displayed in search results both on Myspace and on external search engines.

Your Profile Content includes sections with content you add yourself such as the About Me, Interests, Schools, and Companies sections. It also includes your stream, blog, friends, comment board, events, playlists, photo albums, and videos.

Your Trendsetter Setting consists of when you are checking out content like music, videos, topic pages, photos, blogs, or games. This allows you to be a trendsetter and discover content based on what you and your friends like. When you check out content on Myspace, we'll let you know who else has also checked out that same content. Plus, you will get recommendations based on the content you and others have checked out. For example, if you’re watching a top trending video we may display your profile picture and display name near the video. Also, your profile picture and display name will be displayed when you visit content on a Topics page and may be used to make recommendations to your friends and others of cool things for them to check out. If you prefer not to have your name and profile picture shown to others when these recommendations are being made, you can opt-out by simply changing the Trendsetter Setting in your privacy controls.

Your My Visitors Setting allows you to see users who have visited your profile and allows other to see when you have visited them. The My Visitors module will appear on your user home page and show the name and profile picture of those who viewed your profile. The setting only works when you and other users both have it turned on. If you opt out of My Visitors, then you do not see visitors to your profile, nor can others see you. For users under 18 years old, the My Visitors setting will only show your friends who visited your profile.

How the Privacy Setting Works

Only your Profile Content is affected by your profile privacy setting.

• As always, the "Anyone" profile setting makes Profile Content available to anyone and everyone. This is the default for new users 18 and over.
• As always, the "Only my friends" profile setting makes Profile Content available only to people who are on your friends list. This is the default for new users under 18.

The low-down on age-based privacy settings.

• If you are 18 and over, you can choose to make your Profile Content available only to your friends and other users 18 or over.
• If you are under 18, you can choose to make your Profile Content available only to your friends and other users under 18.

When individual privacy settings apply.

• Photo Albums, Videos, and Blogs have per item privacy settings that you can choose when you upload that content and modify at anytime. So, if you want your Profile Content to be available to anyone, but want to limit specific photo albums, blogs, or videos to only your friends, you can do that. If you want to make an album, blog, or video viewable to more people than your profile privacy setting allows, you need to change your profile privacy setting to “Anyone.”
• Events and Playlists also have per item privacy settings. Even if you allow only your friends to view your Profile Content, you will still be able to make Events and Playlists available to Anyone.
• Stream Privacy (who can see your Stream) is controlled by your profile privacy setting. You can manage which items are included in your Stream in your Stream Settings.

Applications & Games

When you use a Myspace Application (app or game), your Basic Profile Information (excluding age and gender), your friends list and your friends' Basic Profile Information (excluding age and gender) is shared with that app. That app may then also have access to any Profile Content you have made available to "Anyone." Apps use the shared information to provide you with a more personalized experience, for example, to allow you to invite friends to play a game with you. You may also be prompted with the option to share additional information with that app, depending on the functionality of the app.

Additionally, when a friend adds an app (even if you haven't added that app yourself), your Basic Profile Information (excluding age and gender) is shared with the app. Your Profile Content available to "Anyone" may also be shared with that app in order to provide a more engaging user experience for your friend. If you prefer not to share any of your information beyond Basic Profile Information with apps that you have not added yourself, you can choose to block all apps that you have not added.