Facebook launches keyword searching on past posts

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Here’s news that will horrify those of us whose pasts include truly embarrassing Facebook posts: Facebook has enabled keyword search on past posts, thus killing the concept of privacy by obscurity.

On Monday, it announced the new Graph Search, which, it tells us, will enable the reliving of “the most important memories of your life”.

The new Facebook search is being introduced this week in the US, in English, on iPhone and on the desktop version of Facebook.

The new search will allow keyword search on photos, posts, videos, and/or links about, say, a friend’s wedding, or the equally wholesome content of a chocolate chip recipe a friend shared in the past.

Just search on cookie, recipe, friend’s name, and bingo! You’re one step closer to the recipe your friend shared with you on Facebook and which you thought you’d lost. (One step closer to Type 2 diabetes, but oh well – carpe diem, and carpe carbs!)

Of course, searches don’t always stay as wholesome as cookies and weddings.

With the new keyword-enabled search, anybody with whom you’ve shared content in the past can now search on words such as “drunk”, “nude”, “party”, and “[your name here]”.

The new search won’t change your privacy settings. If you’ve only shared content with friends, then only friends can search and find your content.

Then again, if you’ve ever been in the habit of sharing things publicly, anybody who searches could turn up that content.

If that makes you uneasy for any reason, you might want to imagine a few choice words that, if put into a keyword search with your name, would return results that would best be left in the dark.

It’s a good idea to check out your Timeline and/or run some searches with your name coupled with blush-worthy words, in order to ferret out anything that could embarrass you or that you wouldn’t want a current or future employer to see.

If you find such content, change the audience that can view it to “Friends” or “Only me”, or just delete it!

If you want to make sure your current privacy settings are up to scratch, you can check what they are with the Facebook privacy dinosaur.

For even more advice on staying safe and secure on Facebook, Naked Security readers can check out our 5 tips to make your Facebook account safer, and don’t forget to Like us on Facebook to get the latest security news, opinion, advice and research.