Facebook has added a new privacy setting that permits select partners, Docs.com, Pandora, and Yelp, to personalize their features when users first arrive on their Web sites.  The select partners pull public information from Facebook profiles to “personalize your experience and allow you to quickly connect with your friends and see relevant content on their sites.”

Facebook explains:

When you arrive on these sites, you’ll see a notification from Facebook at the top of the page.  You can easily opt-out of experiencing this on these sites by selecting “No Thanks” on the blue Facebook notification on the top of partner sites.

It is unclear whether opting out prevents Facebook from sharing your information.  The partner Web sites may still have access to your profile data, even when not used for personalizing your experience.

If you don’t want Facebook to share your information with these other sites, change your privacy settings:

Go to Account > Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites > Instant Personalization > Edit Settings and uncheck “Allow.”

Thanks to my friend Nancy for bringing this to my attention. 

Copyright 2010 Beverly Michaelis