You probably already use Facebook, or you've at least heard about it and considered joining. More and more people are spending more and more time and sharing more and more personal information on Facebook. At some point, it just seems natural and safe to post whatever you want to your profile. The fact is, though, that if you don't spend some time familiarizing yourself with your account, privacy, and application settings, you could wind up with big regrets.
Let's take a look at these three kinds of settings and see how they can help keep social networking safe and fun.
Account Settings
The first thing is knowing how to access your settings. At the top of each Facebook page, there is an "Account" button (to the right of the search bar and right next to "Home" and "Profile"). If you click on "Account", it expands to show several other options, including your account, privacy, and application settings. Click on "Account Settings", and notice the tabs at the top of the page...a lot of settings to look over.
Your first account setting is your name. This is pretty straightforward, but it raises the issue of fake names. Some people like to use fake names for their Facebook profile so they can't be easily found (e.g. by prospective employers). This, however, violates Facebook's "Statement of Rights and Responsibilities". By setting up a Facebook profile, you agree to "not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission." That means that not only should you not use a fake name, but you should also not create a Facebook profile in the name of someone else, like a celebrity. If you use a fake name, your profile may be deleted. Instead of hiding behind a fake name, it's better to only share information and content that you don't mind others seeing and to effectively use your privacy settings to control who can see information about you.
I actually forgot I had a user name until I looked. Your user name defines the URL of your Facebook profile, which means that searches for your user name could turn up your profile.
Your Facebook password is very, very important. I know it's tempting to get careless with passwords, but having a strong password for any website is important, especially Facebook. People's Facebook accounts do get hacked into, and cleaning up afterward is more than a minor nuisance.
I don't have a linked account set up, so if anyone has experience with that, let me know. I imagine it could make life a little more convenient. We'll leave Privacy Settings for another day. Account Security provides the option for Facebook to send you an email when you log in from a device you've never logged in before. That can be a good idea; if you log in from different devices (like lab computers) you should make sure you logout and close the browser window when you're done with Facebook. That's the best way to keep your account safe.
Note that deactivating your account does not permanently delete your information. It only makes it invisible to the rest of the world, and you can reactivate your account whenever you want. If you want to permanently delete your account (I applaud your strength), you have to submit a request here.
Next, if you click on the "Networks" tab, you can see which networks you belong to. Networks are important when it comes to privacy because your privacy settings will set different rules based on whether someone is inside or outside of your network. People who may know you (who go to the same school or work at the same place) will generally be able to see more information about you than people who do not.
The "Notifications" tab lets you determine when you want email or mobile Facebook alerts. I used to get emails when practically anything happened to my Facebook, but that got really annoying quickly. If you don't check your Facebook account regularly, it might be a good idea to set up some notifications to let you know when someone sends you a message or friends you.
If you have a mobile device, the "Mobile" tab will help you set it up to use with Facebook. The "Language" tab is where you set up your default language. People are buying more and more stuff on Facebook these days, so the "Payments" tab is where you set up how you want to pay for purchases. Like any site, use some common sense when giving out your credit card information. You should also be careful with spending your money on Facebook: avoid scams and don't spend money you don't have.
Finally, the "Facebook Ads" tab is where you can allow or disallow Facebook and third party applications from using your personal information in your ads. The most common use of your information in advertising is that if you "like" something, then an ad your friends may see will indicated that you have "liked" it. Facebook ads may also contain your profile picture.
Well, that's all for now. We'll pick up next time with Facebook's Privacy Settings.
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