Making Your MySpace Profile Private

As the name MySpace states, this is your space. This means you can, within reason, essentially add anything you want to your profile page. You've got a great deal of freedom when you're creating your profile, which is one of the main reasons why MySpace has become so popular. But with freedom comes responsibility, and at some point the line needs to be drawn when you're deciding what type of information (particularly personal information) you openly publish for the masses.

Determining who can see what — that's actually a big deal when you understand that there are potentially millions of people who can read your profile. MySpace has realized this, and for this reason there is an option to have a private profile. A private profile allows you to limit who can view your profile information; you can narrow it down to only the individuals listed in your friends list. Then anybody you haven't added as a friend has no way to view your info — it's just that simple.

When you make your page private, any non-friends who come to your page will only be able to see your profile picture, basic information (age, location, and so on), and your Contact Box. Also, in the place of your other personal info, a message appears: This profile is set to private. This user must add you as a friend to see his/her profile.

So, why would you want a private profile — and what happens if you decide to go private? Here's a list of points that help answer these questions; it also tells you what you need to know about private profiles in general:

• A profile is publicly viewable by default: When you first register on MySpace, a majority of your profile can potentially be viewed by anyone with Internet access, not just registered MySpacers. While adding your information to your profile page, keep in mind that what you post can be viewed by friends, family, co-workers and anyone else who might stumble upon your MySpace page while surfing the web.

• A private profile offers automatic protection for young MySpacers: One of the things that MySpace takes very seriously is protecting younger users. To begin with, no one under the age of 14 is technically allowed to register on MySpace, but there is no real way to enforce this rule. But, by default, any MySpace who is older than 14 and younger than 18 will be given a private profile.

• Granting full profile access to just your friends is smart: Although MySpace gives you the ability to meet all kinds of new people from around the world, you might decide that you only want to interact with people whom you already know and are friends with outside of the MySpace realm. By creating a private profile, you can allow only those you're already friends with to see the information that you add to your space. If you become friends with someone new and want to let them see your full profile, simply add them to your MySpace friend list.

• Flexibility of profile settings gives you control: Nothing that you change in your settings, such as making your profile private, is permanent. If for some reason you'd like to open yourself back up to anyone and everyone on the Internet, you're just a few clicks away. And if you try it and don't like being open to everyone on the Internet, you always have the ability to change back.

If you decide that you want to make your MySpace profile private, follow these steps:

1. After you've logged in, click the Account Settings link in the list that's directly to the right of your profile picture.

You wind up at the Change Account Settings window. This is where you can manage many different parts of how your MySpace page works.

2. Click the Change Settings link for the Privacy Settings option.

This will open the Privacy Settings window, which has several controls that allow you to change the various privacy settings.

3. In the Privacy Settings window, scroll down to the Privacy Settings box.

4. In the Privacy Settings box, choose the radio button for My Friends Only in the Who Can View My Full Profile section.

By default, MySpace will have your profile viewable to the public. This means that anyone, not just other MySpacers, can view most of your profile information at any given time. To set your profile to private mode, change the selection from Public to the My Friends Only option.

4. Click the Change Settings button.

After you select the My Friends Only option, there's only one thing left to do — save your new privacy settings. This is done by (you guessed it) clicking the Change Settings button at the bottom of the Privacy Settings box. After you click the Save Settings button, a message appears above the Privacy Settings box, letting you know that your privacy settings have been updated.

With your profile set to private, all non-MySpacers will be unable to view your profile at all, and you will have to add any registered MySpacer to your friends list before they can view your full MySpace profile.

Although you may feel a little more safe now that your profile is set to private, remember that some of the fun and power of MySpace is allowing people from anywhere and everywhere to view what you have to offer. Having a private profile makes a curious visitor jump through some hoops to check out your information, which might make some impatient people give up. If you're using your MySpace profile to promote and expose your professional self (or your organization) for marketing purposes, then you might want to think twice before making the switch to a private profile.