How To Undo Facebook's Desperate, Idiotic Email Default Setting Change

Here's how to undo the desperate, idiotic email default setting change Facebook just foisted upon you.

If you're a loyal user of the Facebook email service (yes, there is such a thing), and want your Facebook default email address to be your @facebook.com account, then read no further. Facebook has ensured that your weird Facebook email will be displayed on your timeline for all your nerdy friends to see.

But if you're like everyone else (read: everybody I or anyone I've talked to about this have ever met), you either didn't even know Facebook offers email (most likely) or you've chosen not to use it (in other words, you already have a Gmail account that is almost definitely better in hundreds of ways.)

If so, you are probably not too happy about the new setting that makes your Facebook account -- which you probably didn't even know you had -- your default email account on the social network. In other words, this stupid change made it so you and everyone you know unwittingly now has your @Facebook.com emails listed as the prime way to get in touch with you.

So here's how to undo Facebook's email setting change, in case you want people viewing your timeline to actually be able to reach you:

First, obviously just go ahead and log in to Facebook and go to your timeline. Next, simply click on the Update Info button to the right of your name at the top of your timeline, and you'll be taken to the extensive list of all the information you provide on Facebook (it's kind of overwhelming to see it all laid out like this, right?)

Scroll down to the Contact Info section and be blown away by the visual evidence that your email address has been changed without your knowledge, let alone approval, to the @Facebook.com account you've probably never used.

Click Edit next to the Contact Info header, and in the section labeled Emails notice that your prior primary e-mail address now has a bolded circle with a line through it similar to an old-school no-smoking sign. This indicates that the e-mail YOU chose as your primary point of non-Facebook contact via the social networking site has been blocked from the view of those who read your profile in order to make space for the useless Facebook.com e-mail account you didn't know you had.

Obviously, the next step is to unclick the circle next to your Facebook email account and to click the one next to the email account you actually use. Now just scroll to the bottom and save your changes, then reload your timeline and ensure it has actually been changed.

It's pretty shocking what these companies will do to rake in a few extra page views, but if you inform yourself you can at least pretend you're a little more immune than the next guy.

A Facebook spokesperson provided the following statement about the privacy change to Reuters, if it makes you feel any better. I, for one, am not impressed.

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.

Not a good enough response, Facebook. Shame on you, Mark Zuckerberg.