Criminals and scammers love crowds. And in cyberspace, there’s no crowd bigger than the one found on Facebook. Currently numbering 500 million members, its no wonder this social network juggernaut has become the new
The good news is the fact that Facebook has recently made some changes on its user privacy and security controls and this gives Facebook users a lot more options to decide on how they share their information over the social network. The bad news is the fact that the controls are scattered, complicated and just plain confusing. Even worse is the fact that these recent changes have even removed some of the privacy options that were available before.
But first things first, how do you go about optimizing your security and privacy settings within Facebook’s labyrinth of options and interfaces?
I. Users’ Guide to Facebook Profile Settings: Friend Lists, Chat and Wall
First and foremost are the settings not found on the account button dropdown that have direct impact on your Facebook privacy and security. Optimizing these settings first will make it easier for you to optimize your account and privacy settings later on.
A. Friend Lists: Creating and classifying your friends into lists makes it easier for you to use the new granular type Facebook security settings. Here you can classify your Facebook friends under several groups such as Game friends, Workmates, High School Friends, Family, etc. In real life, we also classify our friends according to how much we trust them and share personal information with them accordingly. With Facebook’s new security features, you can do that and proceed to easily set privacy settings for each group/list.
This can be accessed through Account > Edit Friends > Friends > Create List
B. Wall Posts: There’s a lock symbol just beside the share button on your homepage or profile page. By clicking on this symbol, you can specify which group of people will be able to see a particular post. You can choose from among the available options: Everyone, Friends of Friends, Friends Only and Customize. The options are pretty straightforward except customize. Here, you can use the list you have just created to create status updates visible only to those groups that you want to see it.
This is especially useful for limiting the amount of sensitive information your other friends see on your wall. Do you really want your Facebook game buddies to see your children’s pictures and conversations about family problems for example?
C. Chat Settings: The chat window is being utilized more and more by scammers, so this Facebook feature should also optimized for security and privacy. The chat’s option and button will give you the ability to appear offline and the friends’ list will give you the ability to choose what groups/lists you appear online to and which groups/lists you will block.
To access Chat > Options and Chat > Friend Lists
D. Pages You’ve Liked: This may also be a good time to unlike some pages you’ve liked before but do not want to be affiliated with. Although you can hide your list of interests and pages from everyone or limit its visibility to your friends only, remember that Facebook’s new features do not give you the ability to control your recent activity from being posted on your wall. This means that if you’ve just posted a picture or message on “I hate Obama’s” wall or if you’ve liked a post there, this activity will be displayed automatically on your wall and will have to be removed manually.
This can be accessed through your Profile > Info Tab
