Today you can find out about people by searching the Internet. Facebook in particular has become a hub for information, both important and trivial, a collection of someone’s personal photos, statements and information. Therefore, it is vital to understand your privacy settings.
Default configuration
When you first sign up for Facebook, your profile will have default settings, which are provided. You can adjust them by going to your Facebook page, click on ‘account’ (at the top right) and click on ‘privacy settings’.
your circle of friends
When you look at your privacy settings, you’ll see four different options to choose from to access each part of your profile: Everyone, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, Other.
By default, only users within your network and your confirmed friends can see your profile. Depending on the type of friends you’ve confirmed, your network can become quite large, so it’s important to adjust those settings.
How to adjust default settings
Profile will allow you to customize who can see your profile page. Follow these steps:
1. Go to your Facebook page
2. Click ‘Account’ at the top right
3. Choose ‘Privacy Settings’ from the drop down menu
4. Click on ‘Customize settings’, which you can find at the bottom of the list
5. Choose from the dropdown menu next to each part (Posts of mine, Family, Relationships, etc.) who you want to be able to see this: Everyone, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, or customize your own preferences.
private page
If you choose the most private option, ‘Friends Only’, the only people who can see your profile are your confirmed friends. If you want to have a very private profile, this is a good setup.
Find people
The only problem with the ‘Friends Only’ setting is that if people search for you, they may not be able to identify you based on the limited information they can see. Personally, I don’t see this as a big deal because you can always send this person a personal message to find out if they’re the person you’re looking for. If you don’t hear from them after a while, you know you might have been wrong.
To help
Facebook has an extensive help section, so if you find it difficult to understand how to change and what to change, just use the search function on the help page. There may already be an answer to your question.
Follow this link for a detailed explanation of ‘Control How You Share’ on Facebook: www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation.php