Photo: © 2010 Facebook

Gosh! The Internet went bananas after the king of the nerds (and now the owner of your internet soul), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, announced big changes to the site's privacy settings.  

Yes, they might own everything that you ever write, photos of your first-born and are currently developing a film script from your ‘I hate you Sharon for cheating on me with my brother' wall rant, but I think the new settings may hold some advantages. 

Now if you are like me, I use Facebook as a stalking device. It's my own handy desktop private investigator/counseling service.

I use it to covertly catch up on ex-boyfriends, making sure that their current girlfriends are less attractive than me ... surprisingly not always the case.

I also indulge in a bit of ex-classmate stalking. Who has five children and lives in a caravan? Who is currently in jail? Who is married to a prominent local businessman but is regularly tagged in photographs in which the location can at best be described as ... brothelesque?

It's a satisfying and often hilarious part of my day that would be ruined if these people cottoned on to the new privacy settings.

I, of course, have rather strict Facebook privacy settings, because if I am ever - God forbid! - murdered, die in a tragic accident or involved in a sex scandal, I don't want my newspaper photo to be me dressed as a sexy magpie, with too much cleavage and a ridiculous feathery hat.

It's just not the way I would like to be remembered.

The choice is yours: you can take a moment to customize your settings to avoid people like me checking you out, or go along for the ride.

Just make sure that if you are involved in a scandal or plan to wander down a dangerous dark alley this weekend, double check your profile photo isn't you performing a sex act or holding a bong.

Your mum might not be too happy.

Here's a simple guide to changing your settings

You can find more of Aleisha's rants at imdoingmybest.com