3 Simple Checks To Protect Your Facebook Privacy

By Simone McCallum, June 20, 2012

I’ve been chatting to a few people lately about Facebook privacy, and one trend is that there are varying levels of concern about how much others can see if they are not supposed to. If you have ever had someone from a far flung country suddenly start liking photos posted to your Facebook Timeline then you’ll be familiar with that uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach. But you still want to share stuff with your friends, right? So how can you be confident that your private updates are not seen by the rest of the world?

Solution – here are 3 easy checks you can make right now:

1. View your own Timeline as a member of the public. Go to your Facebook profile, on the right hand side beside the cog wheel click on the drop down arrow, then select View As.

Your Facebook Timeline as it appears to the public will be shown. You can also see how certain Facebook friends will see you Timeline by entering their name in the box.

Check all the photos and status updates shown to make sure you are happy these are visible to the public. If you use a photo as your Cover Image or Profile Photo then these will be publicly visible (even after you change the image to another one – unless you delete or amend the permissions).

2. Check which Apps have access to your info. Review your Facebook Privacy settings here to see which Apps you have granted access to your profile and delete all the apps who have gone bust, been bought, or who you only used that one time.

3. Control what happens when friends tag you or you tag them. Only tag your Facebook Friends in photos, checkins, status updates if you want all their friends to be able to see the information. And deleting the info on your Timeline may not delete from your friends Timeline, so it may linger on longer than you expect. Remember that when you post!

You can select the settings here: http://www.facebook.com/privacy