Protecting Your Privacy on Facebook

If you are a Facebook user, you may be aware of some recent changes that affect your privacy settings. Some are changes that will offer better protection. Others could open your wall contents to people you don’t want seeing that information.

Login Protection
There are two new features that should make it harder for hijackers to login in to your account and post phony messages on your page. One will notify you when your account is accessed from a computer or mobile device you haven’t used before. For example, if you use a friend’s computer to access your account and you’ve never used that computer before to access Facebook, Facebook will send you an e-mail alert. But, you have to set that alert. Go to the Account link in the top right corner, then click on Account Settings, scroll down to Account Security and click on Change. Select the Yes button and click Submit. You can also sign up to get text alerts on your cell phone. When you login with new devices, you’ll be asked to name them for future reference.

Facebook has also built a new system to block suspicious logins before they happen. When it appears that someone is trying to access your account from an unusual device, that person will have to answer security verification questions to prove his or her identity as the real account owner. The questions will range from identifying the name of a friend in a photo, entering a birth date and others.

Privacy Settings
Recent changes to the Facebook user agreement make it easier for third party developers to access information on your wall. If you want only want your friends to see your wall, you have to manually change your privacy settings. There’s one setting that actually shows your name, your profile picture and some of your Facebook friends to anyone who searches your name on a public search engine like Google. To disable this ability, click Account in the top right corner, then click Privacy Settings. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to Applications and Websites and click on Edit Your User Settings. Scroll down to Public Search, click Edit Settings and uncheck the box that enables a public search. You can also limit the personal information other applications can access on your page when your friends use them. This includes status updates, notes, birthday, your bio, etc. To change these setting, click Info Accessible to Your Friends once you are in Privacy Settings.

It’s a good practice to go into your Facebook Account Settings and Privacy Settings every so often to be sure your information is only accessible to the people you choose. For more detailed information on how your Facebook information is shared, click here.

Also, be sure to check out our Facebook page here.