3 Ways To Protect Your Privacy On Facebook
By Nick Duley.
As technology is becoming an increasing part of our lives. It’s important to protect our privacy and security from online trolls and hackers. Facebook is one of the most common social networks out there and by default, the privacy features for one’s account are very limited. Leaving your personal information open. In this article, I’ll go over 3 simple and effective ways to protect your privacy on Facebook.
1) Change who can look you up using your phone number and email address
Putting up personal information such as your phone number and email address for anyone to see is extremely dangerous. If someone has your phone number, they can send you spam messages and track down your location. And if a hacker has your email address and if you already have poor security practices for your email account, a hacked email address allows a hacker to view your banking statements, the activity of other online accounts you have, etc.
To rectify this, go into Facebook settings, click privacy and for “Who can look you up using the email address you provided?” and “Who can look you up using the phone number you provided?, choose from the dropdown menu “Only me”.
Turn off Search Engines Linking your Facebook Profile
If you’re not comfortable with employers or random people looking you up you may want to turn this feature off. Someone who doesn’t have Facebook can look up your name on Google or any search engine, find your Facebook profile and can see the information you made public on your profile.
However, this is very simple to fix. Go into Facebook settings, click privacy and where it says “Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your Profile?” untick the box “Allow search engines outside of Facebook to link to your Profile”.
Hide your Friends List
You may not feel that your Friends list is a big threat to your privacy, but if you keep it open, it’s easier for a malicious user to contact people who know you. For example, if someone has a grudge against you, they can go through your friends list and send your friends malicious messages about you.
Like all my other tips, this can be resolved through Facebook settings. Go into Facebook settings, click privacy and where it says, “Who can see your friends list?”, choose from the dropdown menu “Only me”.