Facebook is the number one social networking site and for a good reason. It’s easy to use and offers many privacy options for the highest level of protection available on a social networking site. Facebook’s privacy options are meant to protect users and ease worries about random people seeing your pictures, posts and comments.
In the past, Facebook had a serious problem with stalking because anyone could find a member’s personal information and pictures. Facebook has since undergone a major overhaul, adding better, stronger levels of security so you control who sees your personal information. Improved security offers the user the opportunity to specify who can, and who cannot, see their information.
Your Facebook photos can be seen by anyone if you don’t monitor your privacy settings for each photo album. If you don’t want anyone to be able to see your pictures, follow these steps to set your photos to private:
- Go to “My profile” and click on “Photos” at the top.
- Scroll to the bottom where your albums are located.
- Next to “View comments” it says “Album privacy”.
- Click on “Album privacy” and then decide who may see the pictures.
- There are several options to choose from, including:
- Everyone
- Friends of Friends
- Only Friends
- Customize
Click on “Only friends”, the highest privacy setting possible, so only your friends can see your pictures. You might wonder why you would want to keep your pictures private. Incriminating photos can hurt you when you are applying for jobs as some employers look at a potential employee’s Facebook page to see what type of activities they are involved in. If you’ve posted a lot of pictures of yourself partying, it could send the wrong message to prospective employers and you might be eliminated from consideration for some great jobs because of your behavior.
If you’ve posted pictures that include your children, setting them to private prevents people you don’t know from seeing them. It’s easy for online predators to find out who you and your children are as there have been several accounts of stalking and child molestation stemming from online social media sites where the user doesn’t protect their information.
In order to keep your personal information private and safe from online predators, limit how much personal information you post. Security experts suggest including only basic information. If long lost friends want to know what you do and where you live, you can share that information with them.
Another important part of protecting yourself online is minding friend requests. Some people accept ever friend request they get. Don’t do this. If you don’t actually know who the person requesting your friendship is, do not accept their friend request. Don’t accept friend requests through e-mails as these can be spoofs. Rather, go to your Facebook page and accept friend requests from there, if you’re going to accept them at all.
Set your privacy settings to the highest level to prevent people from seeing your personal information. Keep your profile picture basic, especially if you don’t want people to see pictures of your children. Your privacy, and that of your children, is extremely important in a world where anyone can find out who you are and where you live. Make sure you take all the necessary steps to protect yourself and to stay safe.
