11 Facebook Privacy Steps to Take Now

Kibanga Ampiga Mkoloni · 2014-03-31T08:49:54+00:00

11 Facebook Privacy Steps to Take Now Introduction For millions of people, Facebook is the Internet. Its apps, games, instant-messaging abilities and constant postings take care of all their needs. Yet many Facebook fanatics fail to realize how much information about themselvesthey're giving away, and how easily unscrupulous app makers and identity thieves could exploit that data. Here are 11 things you should do (or not do) to protect your privacy on Facebook. Don't share identifying information about yourself, such as your address, date of birth or telephone number, on your profile pages. Users who insist on sharing some of their personal information should be sure to at least make their pages private so that only people they trust can see them. "Facebook privacy settings have multiple layers in them," said Steve Schwartz of Intersections Inc., a provider of consumer and corporate identity risk-management services based in Chantilly, Va. "You really have to go into the depths of Facebook to ensure that you've set it up so only people that you know and have accepted as friendsare allowed to access your information." Tim Armstrong, a Boston-based malware researcher at the Russian security firm Kaspersky Labs, agrees. "The first thing everybody should do is visit the privacy settings," Armstrong said. "There's an awful lot of customizability in there that people don't take advantage of. You should really look at your account settings and your privacy settings and go through every single one. "You can control how apps connect to your Facebook account and whether or not they can post things on your wall," Armstrong said. "You can set it up so if someone tags you on something, you have to approve it before it posts. That's the No. 1thing just going through all the settings and seeing if they fit what you're doing." Be wary of messages, wall posts or Tweets from anyone even friends. Scammers might hack your friends' accounts and send enticing links that could lead you to an innocent-looking page, but could transmit harmful malware to your computerand allow the criminal access to your data, Schwartz said. "If a post from a friend looks odd, maybe you want to contact that person and ask, 'Did you just do this?'" Schwartz said. If your child participates on Facebook, talk to him or her about identity theft in the same way you would talk about drugs or safe driving. "Be sure they understand what privacy means," Schwartz said. "Especially with child identity theft on the rise, it's really important that parents make sure that if they're setting up Facebook accounts for kids, they make it as private as possible." Social-media users looking for fraud protection need to have robust passwords. "Use capitals, numbers, and, if possible, symbols, in passwords to make them harder to crack," Schwartz said. If you must access your Facebook account from a remote location, be sure your browsing session is secure. "If you're on another machine, you want to be sure there are no cookies being saved and that there's no way for the information to be kept on the machine," Schwartz said. "If you're in an Internet café or a place where there's free Wi-Fi, Facebook offers HTTPS, so you can always go in through a secure browser session." Keep your browser, operating system and anti-virus software up to date. "When your anti-virus software tells you it needs to update its definitions, you have to do that," Schwartz said. "Be sure you have anti-spam software and anti-malware software, so that if someone does try to attack your computer through social media, you have something on your machine that can catch it and shut it down." Make your social circle more selective. Be selective about who you have in your network. "Only accept friend requests if you're confident they are genuine," Schwartz said. Do not broadcast personal information about travel plans. "Thieves could be patrolling your social network and use that information as an opportunity to target your home while youre away," Schwartz said. Never share your password with anyone even your friends or family. Not all relationships end up happily ever after, and once you start sharing passwordswith friends, they can tap into basically anything you have that's private to you, according to Schwartz. Change your password often. "While it may be tempting to just use the same password because it's easy to remember, changing your password at least once a month can help minimize the risk that somebody can use your password to access your account," Schwartz said. Consider removing apps that you're no longer using. "We all love Farmville as much as the next person, but why give third-party developers and advertisers access to your profile if you don't have to?" Schwartz asked. "Throughout its history, Facebook has collected a lot more personal information," said Sarah Downey, an attorney and privacy analyst at Boston-based online-privacy provider Abine. "If you track the kinds of information that was public by default back when Facebook launched in 2004, things were mostly private by default. "But Facebook has now taken the stance that you want to share everything by default. So it all comes down to: If you're on Facebook, you are the product, not the customer."

Thread starter Kibanga Ampiga Mkoloni
Start date Mar 31, 2014

Kibanga Ampiga Mkoloni

JF-Expert Member

Mar 31, 2014

Mwl.RCT

JF-Expert Member

Mar 31, 2014

rondynash

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