Two Easy Steps to Protect Your Privacy on Facebook
Now that the personal account of Facebook chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg has been hacked, trust us, it could happen to you. Unless you want to "be like Mark," read on for two of the easiest ways to protect your privacy. In fact, these steps are so easy, they're often overlooked.
Now that the personal account of Facebook chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg has been hacked, trust us, it could happen to you. Unless you want to “be like Mark,” read on for two of the easiest ways to protect your privacy. In fact, these steps are so easy, they’re often overlooked.
First, we can’t imagine you aspire to be the stereotypical social network user, buried in your pajamas in your basement checking your friends out online. So, you head to your local Starbucks and jump on the Wi-Fi network to be, well, among the people.
That’s great, but also the most likely way for someone to gain access to your account, through a public network. Facebook has stepped up, however, with a new encryption option, but you have to make sure its on, here’s how:
Log in to Facebook and click on Account in the upper right corner. Select Account Settings. On that page near the bottom, click on Account Security. If the new option has been made available to your account, the first option at the top will be Secure Browsing (https). Click that, then hit the blue Save button just below it.
Second, make sure your privacy settings are set to the strictest controls so that only the friends, and family, you really want to have access can view personal information like your email and phone number. This was brought home by students at Indiana University who discovered a security flaw in Facebook’s platform code that gave hackers and Web sites access to the personal info of Facebook users, without their consent. Facebook quickly took steps to correct the flaw and restore privacy, but it’s nonetheless a good reminder to take another look at your personal settings. Here’s how:
Facebook gives you two ways to secure your personal information. The first option is to visit the contact privacy settings page and customize your contact settings so that contacts you aren’t close to don’t have access to your email and phone number. An even simpler way is to customize your contact privacy settings directly from your profile. Click on the “Info” tab in your profile and scroll down to the contact information section. Once you mouse over the contact area, you’ll have the option of editing the content. If you click on “Edit” you will notice little lock icons next to each piece of information. If you click on the lock you will be prompted with a box which says “Who can see this?” from which you can completely customize who can see your information.
Need more reminders on easy ways to protect yourself on Facebook? Make sure you read this and this.
