As most Facebook users may have noticed, earlier this year, Facebook changed it’s privacy settings, making once private information public. Policies regarding pictures, wall posts and information about users have all changed and have actually become more accessible to employers.
As a study by University of California, Berkeley pointed out, more than half of young adults have become more concerned about their privacy. Pictures of underage drinking, scandalous clothing or something reminiscent of Michael Phelps taking a bong toke have all made users question how much they want to share.
Now, before you begin to look over the 5,830-word privacy policy, which the New York Times pointed out is longer than the United States Constitution, there are several things you can do to protect yourself from information getting into the hands of a third-party.
- Change the privacy setting on all the photos and videos that you have been tagged in to ‘only friends.’
- If you don’t want everyone reading your updates, click the padlock icon on the lower right corner and change the setting.
- Hide your profile from Google search by going to ‘privacy settings,’ then ‘search’ and changing the status on the ‘public search results’ box.
- Albums are automatically shared with everyone, so customize the setting under ‘privacy.’
- Facebook application partners can store data for as long as they like, and many quizzes and games can have unlimited access to information on your profile, once you accept. Make sure you delete all old quizzes and applications that you may have accepted.
- Finally, while just liking a friend’s photo or post can seem harmless, the information collected from these posts are shared with companies advertising on Facebook. This information is then used to personalize advertisements on your page. To avoid this Big Brother-like feature, go to ‘applications’ under ‘privacy setting.’ Then click ‘websites, instant personalization pilot program’ and edit the setting.
Sadly some information, like your hometown and education will remain public because of a feature called community pages, which automatically links personal data.
*PCMAG.com also put together a helpful slideshow to help you change your privacy settings. *