Is Your Facebook Account Secure?

By Amanda Pendolino on January 25th, 2010

Are you sharing your Facebook profile with the world? According to The New York Times, the site made some big changes to its users’ privacy settings in December. Did you adjust your profile? Here are the three settings you might consider changing:

1. Who Can See The Things You Share (Status Updates, Photo, Videos, etc.)

The new default for this setting is everyone on the internet. If you want to limit access to friends or networks, follow these steps:

From your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at the top right and click “Privacy Settings” from the list that appears.

Click “Profile Information” from the list of choices on the next page.

Scroll down to the setting “Posts by Me” and change this setting using the drop-down box on the right.

2. Who Can See Your Personal Info

Facebook set the new defaults for this other information to “Everyone” (for family and relationships, aka relationship status) or to “Friends of Friends” (birthday, religious and political views). To change it, follow the same instructions as above and look for the items underneath “profile information.” Although these items aren’t as personal as your phone number, your birthday could be used for identity theft.

3. What Gets Indexed By Search Engines

Don’t freak out — only a limited amount of Facebook info will show up on search engines, but you probably still don’t want the “allow” box checked. To fix it, go to the “Search” section under privacy settings.

The Times article “5 Easy Steps to Stay Safe (and Private!) on Facebook” features more good tips.