So we’ve talked a lot about Facebook’s much balleyhooed changes to its privacy policy and the way it lets users control what other users see. Facebook wants a certain type of user (one would think one that shares everything with the world), and probably sets settings that would create that kind of environment as the new user’s default.

I created a new Facebook account just for this purpose: lets step through and see what Facebook has set as its defaults.

The first thing that greets users is the everpresent “Write Post” box, and you can clearly see that the privacy settings for posts are set as “Public.” If you were excited, unaware, or inexperienced with Facebook, and failed to realize that you could customize your privacy settings, your own status updates, wall photos, and location tags would be viewable to everyone.

Yes, savvy users will be able to customize their settings, but the majority of Facebook users probably don’t know how customize their own settings. It’s pretty clear that Facebook wants you to share all of your information with them as soon as you log in.

Upon first glance, the Privacy page might seem to have set everything to “Public,” but that only applies to mobile devices without a privacy selector. However, we can click the links to view further.

Once we delve into further settings, however, the default settings are definitely reasonable. Most posts can only be seen by Friends, and a certain few only by Friends of Friends. It’s reassuring to know that Facebook does take into account  default user’s privacy, even if the default visibility for personal wall posts is Public.

However, not all privacy options are listed in Facebook’s privacy center. Anything one posts to one’s own Timeline, whether statuses, photos, or shares, are by default visible to the Public.

The first thing that greets users is the everpresent “Write Post” box, and you can clearly see that the privacy settings for posts are set as “Public.” If you were excited, unaware, or inexperienced with Facebook, and failed to realize that you could customize your privacy settings, your own status updates, wall photos, and location tags would be viewable to everyone.

Even any photos of friends, events, and private parties are set as Public by default. Facebook wants people to see your photos, so unless one takes the time to go through and change the privacy settings everywhere they go to post to their wall, one might accidentally post information as Public on their Timeline.

Yes, savvy users will be able to customize their settings, but the majority of Facebook users probably don’t remember to customize their settings every time they write a new post or post a new photo. It’s pretty clear that Facebook wants you to share all of your information with them as soon as you log in.

We can also take a look at a history of Facebook’s settings and we can see that as Facebook grew in size, they probably realized that getting people to share more gets people to use Facebook more. Facebook’s default settings have forced people to share more and more as it as grown. However, with more sharing and benefit to Facebook also comes with less privacy for its users. Before, the default options for photos uploaded were that only friends could see them; now they are the entire world. Facebook’s act of placing the burden of keeping one’s privacy in check onto the user certainly does not help the user much, but with the user base and engagement they have right now, they certainly don’t need to.

So the next time your grandmother opens a Facebook and starts putting your baby pictures online, be sure to tell her to change the default privacy settings for photos she posts on her wall, because having embarrassing baby photos listed as Public isn’t exactly how most would want to keep their private photos saved.