There is an old saying: “Be careful what you put in writing.” This is especially important regarding Facebook with it’s 800 curious, talkative, gossiping members. Almost everyday and certainly every week, someone is caught red-handed putting something in writing on their time line or even in a “private” message that they later wish they hadn’t. It might have been a criticism of a friend, a co-worker, or of their boss. Most people have a hard time keeping a secret. Even in World War II the United States Office of War Information coined the phrase “Loose lips sink ships” in an effort to keep their soldiers and sailors quiet about their missions.
Is Facebook Privacy Strictly Private?
Facebook is not automatically private in the sense that most people would think of it. If you have time time and patience to check all the Privacy Settings, you will see that you have some control over who can view your time line and who can Find you. You can even tell Facebook to keep you out of the search engines. You will find these settings by clicking the Account icon in the top right corner. Then click Settings and Privacy. Keep in mind that one of your Friends might repost something that you had intended for their eyes only and if their settings are Public, everyone will see it. There are so many loop holes to Facebook privacy that the best policy for you is “Loose lips sink ships” and the ship might be yours. If you really want it private, don’t put it in writing! Facebook makes no guarantees of perfect privacy.
What Is The Security Policy Of Facebook?
Facebook does have an extensive Security Policy, in fact, it is multiple pages and tens of thousands of words in length. Although Facebook claims that their Security Policy is all for the benefit of it’s members, the reality is that Facebook is just trying to protect itself from lawsuits. The main security feature of Facebook is the encryption. This means that Facebook uses a SSL type of URL: https. In this case, everything you type/send to Facebook is encrypted and can not be intercepted by a hacker monitoring your connection. Keep in mind that Facebook, itself, monitors everything you do on it’s platform. They use this information in order to provide advertising on your time line that you are most likely to click. One more thing to remember is that if one of your Friends account gets hacked, that could make your account vulnerable also.
Be Careful How Much Personal Info You Share
Check this out by viewing your own Profile and clicking About, then click each category or section and see if there is information there that should be private. Make sure that even your friends can not see your phone number and your email address. If they can, then that information would be available if your friends account gets hacked or some other loop hole is found by malicious users. Think about this information. Do you really want strangers to know where you live, where you work, your religion, your politics?
What is The Facebook Privacy Checkup
Facebook has a feature that will step by step walk you through most of the security and privacy settings showing you just what and how you can protect your account. You can access this Privacy Checkup by clicking your account icon, Settings and Privacy, Privacy Checkup. The Privacy Checkup will help you review items such as: who can see your phone number, email, and birthday. You can also set up Alerts to notify you if someone attempts to login from a location not recognized by Facebook.