FACEBOOK: Protecting Yourself

While you’re engaging on Facebook—or any social media channel—you always need to make sure you are protecting yourself! Remember, things live on the internet forever, whether you delete or not.

Last week I talked about helping your community and network by only sharing TRUE information. If it is something about you and/or your family, you also have the control to decide what you share and what you don’t. If people are sharing content about you and you wish they wouldn’t, please talk to them. While everyone doesn’t follow by these general guidelines, we should all be civil and helpful to each other, even on the internet.

Please make sure you are interacting with real people and pages, sharing information from valid sources, and not connecting with people you don’t know.

Privacy

I recommend reading this blog, but then taking 5-10 minutes reviewing your settings on Facebook.

Here are some basic areas to focus on in your settings to make sure your account is secure.

1. Change your password frequently
   • To do this, click the down arrow in the top right corner and then select Settings & Privacy, followed by Settings. On the left side of your screen, click Security & Login.
     
   • From here you can change your password, see all the devices you arre signed into (and sign out of them if you no longer have access), set up two-step authorization, and more
     
     
2. Preview how others see your profile
   • This is a great place to start. You can view your profile as it is seen to the public. This will give you a glimpse into information that isn’t locked down you may want to secure. How do you do this? Navigate to your profile (click on your name in top right corner on computer, or Profile at bottom of your screen in the app). Once on your profile, navigate to the three dots (under cover photo on both mobile and desktop) and select “View As.”
     
   • Review your profile and keep notes on things you need to make private.  
     
     
3. Sharing — settings for your audience
   • Maybe when reviewing your public profile you noticed a lot of posts are public. This means people don’t need to be your Friend to see your content. This is how a stranger can learn a lot about you, see what you look like, what you are interested in, etc.
     
   • You can visit posts individually and click the three dots, leading to a menu with an option to “Edit Audience” or you can use privacy settings Facebook has available for you on past and future posts.
     
   • Click the down arrow in the top right, click Settings & Privacy, and then select Settings. From this section of Facebook you’ll be able to update a lot of your settings. I recommend going to Privacy on the left side and you’ll see some options to update your activity settings.
     
   • You can automatically set it up so all your future posts have a limited audience of just your friends, or even select people or lists. You can limit past posts to only be shared with friends.
     
   • A few extra things to keep in mind on the content you share:
     1. Some things you share on Facebook will always be public. For example, when you post or comment in a public group, your post or comment will be public and can be seen by anyone.
        
     2. Your post will show up in News Feed of those you are connected to, on your profile, and in search results.
        
     3. It is easy to check your Audience before you post — when creating or sharing a post, the audience options are right under your name. If you update your settings, it will stay for the next post.
        
     4. Just because you have it set to Friends, if you tag someone in a post, their Friends may also see the content.
        
        
4. Clear Your “Off-Facebook” history.
   • Facebook does collect data on purchase history and browsing history. While you are in Settings, click Your Facebook Information on the left and then Off-Facebook Activity. You’ll see options on the right to Clear Your History. I recommend doing this often.
     
     
5. Targeted Advertisements
   • Yep, Facebook is collecting data on who you are so advertisers can target their advertisement to them if you fit their profile. The good news, you can limit this!
     
   • Go back to the down arrow, click Settings & Privacy and then Privacy Checkup. Select Your ad preference on Facebook. Review the information they share and you will come to a screen where you can toggle information as visible or not. You can also hide when you interact with a page if that is visible to Friends or only you.
     
   • In this area of the Privacy Checkup, this is a great place to go through the different areas, such as who sees what you share.

What other privacy settings would you like me to cover? There are so many, but the above are some basics to get you started!

Reviewing your Activity

If you forgot to save a post or content you wanted to review later, you can go back and review your activity. Facebook tracks pretty much everything you do on the social channel—I’m not joking, and you allow it by signing up for an account and agreeing to their terms.

To see your Activity Log, on the computer click the down arrow in the top right corner (next to your name, menu, Messenger, and Notifications buttons). From the menu that pops up, select “Settings & Privacy” and then “Activity Log.”

To see your Activity Log on your mobile app, click the hamburger (three stacked lines) in the bottom right. Scroll down to find “Settings & Privacy” and then “Settings.” You can scroll down (see, so many options to customize your settings!) to “Your Information” and select “Activity Log”

From here you can see a lot! Posts you’ve created, items you are tagged in, just your general Activity History, and more! You can see recent searches you’ve done, and the list goes on and on! From here you can also manage your history—delete comments, search history, etc.

Follow vs Unfollow people

It is ok to be Friends with someone on the social channel, but also Unfollow them. This means you are still connected, but you aren’t seeing their information in your News Feed. If someone keeps popping up in your News Feed that you don’t want to see, find those three magic dots and select Unfollow! You can also Snooze someone for 30 days if you just need a break from them.

I also recommend reviewing your Friend list to make sure you still want to be connected with everyone. Remember, they can see your stuff and maybe it was someone you were friends with back 10 years ago, but you haven’t spoken to them in ages.

Hacking

Some common “hacks” right now are people creating a new profile for you with your name and any of the public information they can grab from your real Profile.  They will then go through your friend list and request to be friends. Change passwords, update what information is shared publicly and let people know it isn’t you!

Hacking your account and sending messages is another common way a hacker can ruin your Facebook experience. Be sure to update your password, potentially setup two step authorization, and log out of all devices.

Blocking

When things really get out of hand or you have someone you really don’t want them seeing anything—even public information—Facebook does allow you to block people. This will make it as if you don’t even exist on the social channel for them. They won’t see your comments, images, etc.

For this, you need to visit their profile and click the three dots under their cover photo and profile image at the top of their information. You’ll see Block as an option at the bottom. You can also go into your settings to see who you’ve blocked or add someone to your blocked list.

Please keep in mind, this is not a completely in-depth look at Facebook privacy. Facebook has grown so large that there are so many things you can manage. I recommend looking over the settings you have, even beyond what I’ve covered to make sure you are keeping yourself safe!