How To Undo A Change Facebook Is Making To Your Profile Without Permission
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Facebook is making another change to users' accounts without permission -- and this one could cause users to miss important information.
The social media company has started to change the email addresses on user profiles to "@facebook.com" addresses.
This doesn't affect the email address Facebook uses to send notifications.
It does make it so that the only email listed in a user's contact information (@facebook) routes messages straight to the user's Facebook messages inbox, rather than the email account a user added to their Facebook page
This could be an issue for those users who don't typically check their message inbox on their Facebook page. It also obviously changes the contact information a user intended for others to see.
This comes after Facebook's attempt to launch an email service failed to catch on.
The address is built off of the vanity URLs many users created a few years ago. For example, if "John Doe" created a vanity url, his email address would be "johndoe@facebook.com."
For users who didn't set up vanity URLs, the address uses the 9-digit number that was originally assigned as the profile's URL. For example, if a user's profile is at "http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=123456789" the email address would be "123456789@facebook.com."
Fortunately, the change is not difficult to undo. If you are using Timeline:
1. On your profile, click "About" under the blue box with your information OR click the "Update Info" button on the top right under your cover photo. (If you choose this route, make sure the next page shows settings for your "About" section by looking next to your name at the top left of the page. If it doesn't, select "About" from that drop-down menu).
2. Scroll to the contact information module and click "Edit."
3. Click the circle next to the "@facebook.com" email to change the settings to "Hidden from Timeline."
4. If you want a different address to show up on your profile, click the circle next to the email address(es) and click "Shown on Timeline."
5. Click "Save" at the bottom of the editing pop up.
If you haven't switched (or been switched) to Timeline yet:
1. Click "Info" under your profile picture on your profile.
2. Scroll down to "Contact Information" and click "Edit."
3. Click the circle on the far right next to the "@facebook.com" email address and select "Hidden from Profile."
4. If you want a different address to show up on your profile, click the circle next to the email address(es) and click "Shown on Profile."
5. Click save changes
While other email addresses are removable, a user cannot remove an "@facebook.com" address from his or her account.
