Introduction
Facebook is a website that offers users the ability to make and maintain social connections via posting to personal profiles and chatting online with contacts. Personal profiles can consist of anything that the user likes so long as those contents are in compliance with the terms of use that are agreed to when the user signs up for the Facebook account.
Instructions
As with all internet forms of communication and transfer of personal information, there are steps that you should take to ensure that your personal and private information remains protected from anyone who would seek to use your information for their own good rather than yours. It is always best to proceed with extreme caution when setting up and using a personal online profile. Here are a few of the basic steps that you should take to set up your Facebook privacy settings.
Steps to set your Facebook privacy settings
1. Control who sees your profile and contact information — To control who sees your profile on Facebook first go to the Privacy page. When at the privacy page, click on “profile.” On that profile setting you will be allowed to choose who can view your profile page. Most people who are concerned about who sees their profile, limit or deny access to anyone who is not in their contact list. To control who can see your contact information, follow the first steps above by going to the Privacy page and then clicking on “profile.” Scroll down to the selection that reads “Contact Information” and select that option. There will then appear drop down menus that you can use to control who sees your screen name, phone numbers and addresses.
2. Become invisible to searches — If you do not want to be identified by someone who enters in your name to search for you, you will again need to visit the Privacy page to change your settings. On the Privacy page click on the word “search.” The drop down menu should allow you to determine who can find you in a search. If you do not want to deny total access from being found in a search you can use the checkboxes that will be provided in this drop-down menu in order to customize what users can view after finding you in a search. For example, you can indicate whether or not you will want a searcher to be able to contact you, see your picture, etc.
3. Block people — If there are people who you would rather not be allowed to see your profile you can block them. All that you do is list the people that you would like to be denied access to your profile by typing in the person’s name in the “Block People” section of the Privacy page. To list these people that you would like blocked you will have to select them by using the “search” button which then give you the option to block that person.
Warnings
Few security settings are going to guarantee 100% protection from all potential identity thieves or predators. You must always exercise extreme caution when participating in any site that could compromise your personal information. It is best to always be discrete about your personal information and to never divulge identifying information to any one other than contacts that you have met in person and can trust. Hackers and identity thieves are experts in the art of manipulation and often use profile websites like this in order to catch their next victims. Be smart and always on your guard. Part of that is following all of the steps necessary to set up strong privacy settings on your Facebook account.