More Tech Tips
Technology Services for the Financial World!
Facebook Privacy Settings
End User Technologies. May 2012
Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are popular among users not only at home but also in the office, as the sites are often left unblocked by the employer.
Facebook's default privacy settings are not very restrictive, allowing people you do not even know to be able to see your status, wall messages and photo albums. One must review and set the privacy settings right after opening their Facebook account. It is advisable to not add any applications (Apps) on Facebook from publishers you do not trust, as malware applications can be used to hack into your Facebook account or to leak your personal information.
Here are recommendations and instructions on how to check and set your Facebook privacy settings properly.
When logged in on Facebook, go to Privacy Settings. The Default Privacy can be set to Public, Friends, or Custom. At minimum set it to Friends. For even more privacy, set it to Custom, and select "Specific People or lists", and enter only the user names (or a user list name if you have previously created one) who you want to make your wall posts visible to.
In How You Connect, go to Edit Settings,and set them as below:
Who can look up your profile by name? Friends
Who can look you up using the email address or phone number you provided? Friends
Who can send you friend requests? Friend of Friends
Who can send you Facebook messages? Friends
In Profile and Tagging, go to Edit Settings and set them as below:
Who can post on your wall? Friends
Who can see what others posted on your profile? Friends
Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your profile. On
Who can see posts you've been tagged in on your profile? Custom, and specify Only Me
Review tags friends add to your own posts on Facebook? On
Who sees tag suggestions when photos that look like you are uploaded? No One
In Ads, Apps and Websites, go to Edit Settings and set them as below:
In Apps you use section, go to Edit Settings, and turn off the apps by clicking on Turn Off all Apps.
In Public search section. go to Edit Settings, and turn off public search by unchecking the Enable public search.
It is also a good idea to apply your new restrictive settings to your previous posts as most likely your old posts have less restrcitive settings. You can do this in one click and change your past posts to be visible only to your Friends (instead of Public, or Friend of Friends, or Custom list of friends). In Limit the Audience for Past Posts, go to Manage Past Post visibility and click on Limit Old Posts.
You should not add friends who you do not want to share your wall, photos or information with. If you have such "friends", you can just remove them from your Facebook. Alternatively, you can leave them as your "friend" and block them. In Blocked People and Apps, go to Manage Blocking and you can block certain people or friends. You can create a Restricted List of all such "friends". You can also block certain friends by their facebook name or you can block someone by his or her email address. If you receive annoying app invites or event invites, you can also block them here.
The above are only suggestions for setting your Facebook privacy. You can mofiy these settings to your liking if you want to make your Facebook more visible to the people you do not know.
CAPITAL has developed Privacy Report iPhone app to help you see what in your Facebook account is visible to strangers. Contact CAPITAL at sales@capitaltechllc.com for more information about protecting your privacy on Facebook.
Technologies