By clicking “Account Settings,” selecting the “Privacy” tab and selecting Profile Viewable By: “My Friends Only,” you can easily make your MySpace profile exclusive to friends only. This proves qiute effective in stopping the casual MySpace user from viewing your profile.

But ever since the advent of this feature, hackers have been finding workarounds and loopholes that reveal so-called “private” information.

One common method entails copying the URL from a public profile and swapping out the friend ID of a private profile. For example, you could:

• View the pictures on a public profile and copythe URL: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewAlbums&friendID=7654321.
• Navigate to a private profile and take friend ID from the URL: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=1234567 and swap it out with the URL from the public profile, i.e.: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewAlbums&friendID=1234567

Other methods include using exploits with Google Toolbar (navigate to the private profile and click View | Page Style | No Style) or websites which automatically fetch private information from a specified profile.

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on your purpose) MySpace’s security team has ramped up its efforts in fixing these bugs and often has holes patched up days and sometimes hours after their discovery.

So, if you are determined to pry into someone’s private MySpace, you’re best bet is to read blogs on MySpace and MySpace layout tricks (such as this one) and forums for the latest exploits and take advantage of them before the MySpace team addresses the issue. In the meantime, be careful what you post on your MySpace page - your private MySpace page may not be as private as you think.