Clean up your Facebook page with SimpleWash

After we posted yesterday’s article about the potential impact of Facebook’s new Graph Search tool, a couple of people told us about SimpleWash, a search tool that can go through your Facebook  account looking for objectionable content. If it finds anything that could be considered offensive or alarming, it automatically links you to the original post, giving you the option to change the privacy settings or delete the post entirely.

The brainchild of three Kent State University students, SimpleWash is clearly aimed at younger Facebook users who might be looking to graduate and move on to a less tolerant corporate world. As the SimpleWash web site says “a lot can happen in four years, and the internet never forgets…you just lived your life and did your thing – and now, you’ve got the posts and pics to show it.”

You log in to SimpleWash using your Facebook credentials. Once you authorize the app, you are taken to a page with a Start button. Clicking on Start allows SimpleWash to check your Facebook history against a preset list of “undesirable content.” SimpleWash doesn’t say exactly what’s on that list, but claims it spans a “broad spectrum of dirtiness,” from sex to drugs to curse words and more.

SimpleWash also allows you to input your own words that may not be covered by their precompiled list. For example, you might want to purge your Facebook page of all references to a former boyfriend, or maybe delete those pics of you at sorority pledge nights.

SimpleWash returns results under various Facebook categories, e.g. Your Wall, Your Tagged Photos, Your Status Updates. Click on a post and SimpleWash will take you directly to that post on Facebook, where you can change the settings or delete it altogether.

While the SimpleWash app might have been developed with college students in mind, it works just as well with anyone else. It can also scrutinize your Twitter account. And while there are clearly limitations – it doesn’t highlight objectionable content in Comments, for example – it’s a great tool for eliminating some of your more obvious indiscretions.