Is there such a thing as privacy on Facebook, you might ask?
Seeing how everything that you post or gets posted about you (or that you get tagged in) is public knowledge unless you do something about it, the answer is as with most social media: it depends on how you use it.
In this post, we will try to give you some tips without going into much detail on how exactly to alter your settings.
Facebook is used on so many platforms, and how to access certain settings varies a lot. So, trying to include all of them would make it very boring and the good people at Facebook are known to change things around a bit from time to time.
Settings
To minimize the amount of information that ends up on your timeline:
- Review the apps that have the ability to post and remove the posting ability for those that don’t need it.
- With every post you make yourself, consider for which audience you are posting. Do you want the whole world to know or just family and friends?
- Don’t add your location unless it’s relevant.
- Do not tag other people without their permission and ask them to do the same for you.
Advertisements
Interest-based advertising uses cookies and metadata from other sites. Someone looking over your shoulder can learn a lot about what you are interested in, based on those ads. We have informed you about interest-based advertising before, but here is the link to opt out once again: How can I view and adjust my ad preferences?
Using Facebook login credentials on other sites
Some sites will offer to log you in using your Facebook credentials. The same reasoning that is true for using a different password for every site is true for using your Facebook credentials to login at other sites. If anyone gets a hold of the one password that controls them all, you’re in even bigger trouble than you would be if only one sites’ password got compromised.
Post content
Unfortunately there are predators out there, lurking to abuse any information that you give them. Obvious information that should not be posted in public on Facebook:
- phone number
- credit card and banking details
- rants about work related stuff
- photographs of your children
- social security number
- nudity in general
- passwords, not even hints about them
Potentially equally harmful information that we see posted on a regular basis:
- when you will be away for holiday
- where your children go to school
- license plates
- relationship changes and problems
- embarrassing information or pictures about yourself or your friends
- your address (although that is usually easy to find in another way)
Summary
We have touched on some points where you might be able to improve your privacy on social media. Most of the above does not apply to Facebook alone. You may, and don’t have to, agree with all of them, but it’s good to take a step back and look at your own social media behavior now and then.
