Facebook Security Issues: Take The Matter Into Your Own Hands
Facebook is among the main constituents of the digital culture that has surfaced in the 21st century. Staying connected has become more than just a desire or trend, it’s become a lifestyle.
With millions of people trusting the service with their personal information, protection against cybercriminals and Facebook spy software has become more critical than ever.
The social networking giant does not exactly do a very good job of ensuring a secure environment, but it sure does give you a variety of options to get the job done yourself.
Hide Your Identity From The Snoopers
Facebook clearly cares about your privacy, which is why it has presented you with a wide range of privacy, timeline and tagging options to tweak.
There are basically two settings that you can tweak here, namely the “Who can see my stuff?” and “Who can contact me?” Since you are concerned about your security, the first of the two options is what you’ll be focusing on.
Change the settings of “Who can see future posts?” to family, friends, or a subset of friends constituting of only those people whom you trust completely.
Moving on to the next setting, “Review all your posts and things you’re tagged”, turn it on for more control on your prominence across your social network and the website in general.
The more you find yourself in the eye of the public, the greater is the amount of risk that you’re likely to be exposed to.
Also note that the pictures and posts that you’re tagged in appear on your timeline, which is where most of the cybercriminals such as identity thieves look for information on their target.
Avoid Clicking Unknown Links
There have been occurrences of people with fake profiles sharing links that initiate the downloading and installation of malicious tools on the victim’s computer such as Facebook spy program or something similar.
Therefore, make sure you do not click unknown links, especially those shared by strangers.
Think Twice Before Accepting A Friend Request
Just like in real life where you don’t let everyone inside your house or apartment because of personal safety, you need to be careful while letting someone into your Facebook friends list.
Accepting someone’s friends request may give them access to information about you, including photographs and other content that you have specified as viewable by friends.
The displayed information may reveal a lot about you and thus make you susceptible to identity theft or something even worse. Therefore, make sure you only add people you trust to your friends list.
Set Appropriate Privacy Settings For Different Categories Of Contacts
By letting users categorize their contacts and set a different privacy setting for each subset, Facebook lets users conveniently share or post information without having to worry about the misuse of that information.
Confirm after every post or picture that it is only be viewable by the subset of contacts that you trust completely, while those you don’t cannot view it.
The Conservative Approach To Better Security
If the long list of Facebook privacy and security options is leaving your perplexed, you can make things a bit simpler by disabling all the options and then opening them one by one after understanding what they do and deciding if they are really necessary.
This may be a time-consuming process, but at least you will have a clearer idea of what you’re sharing with your network and the world.
The lesser you share with your network and the world, the securer you’d definitely be.
Go Through The Facebook Guide To Privacy
Aware of the security concerns of the users and their confusion in respect to the privacy settings and policies, Facebook has prepared a guide for them.
It is imperative that you go through the entire Facebook Guide to Privacy thoroughly in order to get a better idea of the many options of privacy and security that are available to you.
My Opinion
Irrespective of what some companies may claim, security is becoming a bygone concept in the digital world of today. I believe that under the given circumstances, Facebook is making a genuine effort to curb the many risks that its millions of users are exposed to.
That being said, it is important to take the privacy of your Facebook account seriously if you wish to keep your identity from being stolen or prevent someone from keeping tabs on you in the cyber space.
You must also keep an eye out for any changes that the social networking service makes in its privacy policy and then make any necessary changes accordingly. A bit of vigilance on your part can make a massive difference when it comes to online security.
If you haven’t bolstered the security of your Facebook account through the aforementioned tips yet, you need to get down to it right away before it’s too late.
What About You?
What tips do you have regarding Facebook security issues? Let us know in the comments below.
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About the Author
Natalia David blogs for Mobistealth and has had privacy and security issues at the tip of her fingers since she started her career. She tries to pull apart and put back together most mobile OS and social media platforms to scrutinize them in terms of what’s a no and what’s a go. She tweets @NataliaDavid4.