For those who’ve just realized that there is something called Facebook Privacy Settings, don’t panic thinking of the slew of personal information you may have unwittingly set loose over the web. The suggested plan of action after skimming through the guidelines we’ve listed for you is to visit your account and review the privacy settings as soon as possible.
1. Start with editing your profile:
Since the new and ever changing tweaks to Privacy Settings may sound confusing to a lot of users, we’re going to cross that bridge one step at a time. Facebook for beginners should tell you to look for the sought after settings under the Account tab showing on the right hand, top corner of the page beside Home, Profile and Find Friends. The most important setting is the first thing that’s displayed – options for editing your profile. And the smartest move is to visit this on priority basis.
2. Check out View As option:
Edit profile is where you can choose which little bits of personal information you wish to disclose and to whom. It controls who sees your Current City, Hometown, Gender, Birthday, Interested In, Languages and About Me. The same can be done for everything under the tabs Friends and Family, Education and Work, Philosophy, Arts and Entertainment, Sports, Activities and Interests and Contact Information. After saving the changes, there’s a View As option on the top right hand corner of the page that will beg for your attention. It’s a useful way of checking how your profile appears to a specific friend by typing a name into the supplied box or to the public. So go ahead and fidget with it.
3. Specify Default Privacy for apps without inline audience selector:
Get back to the main Privacy Settings page to specify the Default Privacy for apps without an inline audience selector, like the Facebook app for iPhone. There are three main alternatives here. One for the Public, meaning just about anyone, another for Friends and the last says Custom. It’s your cue when there’s a need to change the Default Privacy Settings for a Facebook app. Take a hint from us – there’s always a need to protect your information.
4. You can also ‘Hide this from’ frenemies:
The Custom option that pops up now and again for practically every setting covers Friends of Friends, Friends, Specific People and Only Me. Hit on the second last choice to point to the people you want share with or type multiple names into the box attached to the handy ‘Hide this from’ selection. Feel a pressing need to control who can search for you on Facebook by your name or contact information? Annoyed by those friend requests from strangers? Control all of this and also who can post on your Wall, send you messages or see Wall posts by other on your profile through the How You Connect tab on the Settings page.
5. Chuck out those worries about being tagged in embarrassing photos:
Now we’re down to all those issues concerning getting tagged in photos and how to solve them. It’s quite simple to figure out once you visit the How Tags Work option. So it wasn’t you in those pictures that were taken on the day you called off sick at work? It was just someone else who looked like you (really?). Fear not, no one can check you into places, bump into you in Tag Suggestions, force a picture you’ve been tagged in to appear on your profile or see images you’ve been tagged in without your permission once you’re done tinkering with the settings in How Tags Work.
6. Control visibility of past posts:
The after party pictures uploaded to Facebook the other day making you feel uncomfortable now that you’re all sober? But you and a special bunch of friends (the ones you were pictured with according to our predictions) are still going to enjoy those pictures later, right? Change the audience of past posts individually by visiting each and picking a different group or specific people to share with in-line. Or take the quicker route and simply Limit Old Posts to friends only through the Limit the Audience for Past Posts option. You can also block event invites, app invites and users by invoking the Block Lists tab on the main Privacy Settings page.
7. Don’t let friends pass on your personal information:
Last, but not the least important is the way users control what is shared via apps, games and websites. If your friends are of the sort with a proclivity towards trying out every app which crosses their path, make sure you visit this section. Because even if you don’t use apps, those to whom your info is visible can still be juggling around with your information without meaning to. It’s also the place to be when you want to preview what your Facebook profile appears when someone looks you up through a search engine.
We know, keeping an eye on your Facebook Privacy Settings can be a major pain in the neck. There’s so much to scan through and we’re glad team Zuckerberg decided to start with in-line controls for every post you put up. There’s no need to upload an excruciatingly embarrassing video of yourself on Facebook and check if it goes viral on YouTube to find out whether your privacy controls are well, properly controlled. It used to be a popular method at one point of time. Or was it just us who depended on that method?