Even though most Facebook users were not even aware that they had a Facebook email address, the social network recently changed the publicly displayed email address for its more than 900 million users. Now, instead of your “real” email address (email@gmail.com) being displayed, your Facebook email (facebook.url@facebook.com) is displayed on the Facebook profile page.
For example, a Facebook user that has a Facebook URL of facebook.com/john.doe will now have a publicly displayed email address of john.doe@facebook.com in lieu of his original email. When someone sends a message to the Facebook branded email address, the message goes directly to the user’s Facebook inbox and does not send a notification to the Facebook user’s primary email address.
A Facebook spokesman told Fox News the following regarding the recent change:
“As we announced back in April, we’ve been updating addresses on Facebook to make them consistent across our site. In addition to everyone receiving an address, we’re also rolling out a new setting that gives people the choice to decide which addresses they want to show on their timelines.”
As seen in the company quote, Facebook is claiming that the unannounced move to Facebook-branded email addresses is rooted in protecting users’ privacy and security. However, since Facebook users already had the ability to easily hide their email addresses, changing over 900 million users’ email addresses to the generic Facebook address without permission or notification has not been well received. As a result of the change, Facebook critics are already accusing the social network of attempting to force users to notice and use the previously, mostly unused Facebook email service.
If you want to switch back to displaying your “real” email address on Facebook, simply follow the steps below:
1. Navigate to your own profile page.
2. Click the “Update Info” button.
3. Find the “Contact Info” section and click “Edit.”
4. In the email address section, click the arrows next to the email address you wish to have displayed.
5. Select who you would like to see your email address (friends or public), and then choose “Shown on Profile.”
6. Click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page.
Sources Include: TechCrunch, Fox News, & ZDNet
