“If it’d be awkward if it was put on a screen in Times Square, don’t put it on Facebook. Oh, and check your privacy settings again.”

Such is the advice given by one @tomscott, who has put up a timely and useful page about Facebook’s Graph Search, coming soon to a profile near you.

Take a look: http://actualfacebookgraphsearches.tumblr.com/

Example of a search:

The genius behind Graph Search is it’ll be easier for people to find people and find stuff out about people. Facebook uses your friends as examples, but you should probably already know what your friends like.

What really has people upset is the potential for others—employers, recruiters, the viperish office gossip, the poisonous aunt—to uncover things about you, both in and out of context, through a simple, generic interest search. Suddenly your name pops up in association with a few keywords, and from there the seeker can not only find out more about you but can extend the search, adding in your photos, your friends, your friends’ photos, Pages they like, their spouses, what their spouses like and so forth.

Creepy? No biggie? We’ll see how this manifests when everybody’s on it. Even if you shrug this aside, it’s still a good social media practice to check your Facebook privacy settings and review all those Pages and Communities you’ve liked.