To everyone on Facebook,

Whether you are aware of it or not, every time you like or comment on a PUBLIC page or post, Facebook will advertise this on ALL of your friends' newsfeeds (with few exceptions). You may have noticed that when you go on your news feed you get many posts saying "Charlie liked Fred's photo" showing you the photo, or "Brenda commented on (company)'s post" and showing you the comment and original post.

Here is how it works in detail. When you post something, you decide the privacy settings (only friends, friends of friends, public, specific group, etc). So if your post is set to only friends and your friend Mike comments on it, only your mutual friends with Mike will get a notification of their newsfeed saying that Mike liked or commented on your post. Facebook will advertise to ALL of your mutual friends so they can all see that he liked it or commented on it, even if Mike's intention was just for you to see it or for anyone else interested enough in the post to go through the comments. No one else will see it because it's the person who posted it that determines who can see the comments.

However, if your FB friend Bob likes a post on Mary's timeline (who you are not friends with), you will still see it advertised on your newsfeed that "Bob liked a post on Mary's (who you have no relevance with) timeline" if her settings are set to PUBLIC. So you may be thinking that you have all your privacy settings set to "only friends" and no one can see the stuff you do, but you are very wrong about this. Only your friends will be able to see your post, on your timeline but that doesn't apply to likes and comments.

I will give you an another personal example. I follow CTV news (a public page) and I commented on one of their posts. One of my friends who does NOT follow CTV news called me the next day to ask me about my comment because facebook notified them that I commented on that post. All of my FB friends saw my comment advertised to them on their newsfeed.

But this is what happens when you post on a public post shared by a group, friend, or page you follow. Let's say you are in a public group, and you comment on something that was shared by the group. You may be thinking "I am commenting for the people who are part of this group to see." You probably think (like most people) that the post is public but that because it's in a group or because your privacy is set to only friends, that your comment is relatively private. If the post is public, potentially ALL of your Facebook friends could be getting a notification on their newsfeed sharing your comment with them, whether they are part of the group or not.

What people get on their newsfeed will depend on their settings. Some people have their settings limited to what they see on their newsfeed. But most people don't. You see what your friends are sharing or commenting on, along with a bunch of ads. Unless you specically go and unfollow certain people (you can be friends with them but unfollow them so you no longer see their posts), or you go into your settings and change it so that you don't see certain things, your friends will all be getting a notification on their timeline saying "this person liked/commented on XYZ's post" and they will all be able to see what you wrote.

This can become problematic when you are commenting on issues that are sensitive like religion, politics, or personal things. I entered a contest where you have to write on a public company's post about your weightloss. So I commented on it writing how much weight I lost thinking the only people who would see it are people scrolling through the thousands on comments already on the post. The next thing I know my friend is asking about my weight loss and she does not even follow this company. So now all of my friends know about it (not that it's a secret but some things you just don't want advertised).

So I am asking everyone who is annoyed with all their comments being shared, or even just annoyed with always seeing everything your friends are clicking like on, anyone who wants facebook to stop announcing to every single one of your friends every time you comment on something to please share and sign this petition. There is no reason all our friends have to know our every move. Facebook has to change this feature.

Please share and sign.