Sorry ’bout that Facebook spam

I'm waving an olive branch to all my Facebook friends whom I inadvertently nailed with spam yesterday. I know some of them did likewise, as anyone who followed a link in the message, then followed the instructions there also ended up spamming their entire friends list.

The culprit is a third-party Facebook application called "How to know if a friend has blocked you on Facebook!" If you get this message by e-mail or as an invitation in Facebook don't click on anything. Don't follow the instructions and don't send it to anyone.

I made the mistake of following the link, clicking on the "like" button and then following the instructions in the message. They included instructions to copy and paste a very long string of code into the browser address bar. After hitting the "return" key I got a notice that everyone on my friends list was now invited to check out the application.

There was no warning this would happen, and no opt in or "accept" button to click before spam under my name was sent to my friends.

Sorry.

After doing this, I went to my account settings and searched behind every link for all privacy settings. I deleted several third-party applications and locked down everything else as much as possible to "friends only." I suggest you do the same.

The best way to protect your privacy on Facebook is to avoid third-party applications and limit sharing settings to "friends only" and IGNORE all those third party application invitations.