Facebook, a popular social networking site, provides people with a chance to get in touch with old friends and meet new ones. Reconnecting with old friends allows you the opportunity to catch up with each other. However, be careful not to share too much information online, especially if your Facebook account is visible to everybody.
You may have heard about “Facebook stalking”, a problem that came about as a result of individuals posting private information on their Facebook pages and not making their pages private. Setting your profile to private and making your pictures private as well will also protect against online stalkers.
When you set your pictures to “Friends only”, Facebook surfers can’t access your pictures. There may be instances where they can see pictures of you on Facebook but this is usually because you are tagged in some pictures that are from another person’s profile. As long as you set all of your pictures to be viewed by “Friends only”, they’re safe from the prying eyes of strangers.
Another reason why people often set the security level on their pictures to “Friends only” is to prevent potential employers, or their current employer, from viewing private photos and using the pictures against them. People have lost their jobs because of incriminating pictures posted on the internet. Whether you’re partying and having a good time, drinking or participating in risque behavior, protecting your privacy by setting your pictures to privates is best.
There are some other things you can do to keep your personal information and your pictures private on Facebook. Here are some suggestions keeping your Facebook profile and pictures private:
- Never accept a friend invitation from a person you do not know. You can report the person to Facebook as “spam” because you do not know them. This helps the social media site to weed out a few of the accounts that are from spammers and should not be on Facebook.
- Increase your security level so only your friends can gain access to your profile. While some internet surfers will be able to see that you do have a Facebook account, they won’t be able to find out anything else about you because your profile is set to private.
- Use a generic profile picture. You don’t want to have a picture of your children on Facebook if you are concerned for your safety or their safety. Try using one picture so people can find you and leave it the same. Changing your profile picture often will spark people to comment on it and it may spark online surfers to take notice of your account. Keeping a boring profile picture is a simple way to protect yourself and your children.