3 FB settings every user should check

In December,Facebook made a series of bold and controversial changes regarding the nature of its users privacy.

In December,Facebook made a series of bold and controversial changes regarding the nature of its users privacy. Those of you who edited your privacy settings prior to Decembers change have nothing to worry aboutthat is,assuming you elected to keep your personalised settings when prompted by Facebooks transition tool.

The tool,a dialog box explaining the changes,appeared at the top of Facebook homepages this past month with its own selection of recommended settings. Unfortunately,most users likely opted for the recommended settings without really understanding what they were agreeing to.

n Who can see the things you share: Probably the most critical of the privacy changes was the change made to status updates. The new Facebook default for this setting is Everyone. To change this setting back to something of a more private nature,from your Profile page,go to Settings at the top right and click Privacy Settings from the list.

Click Profile Information from the list of choices on the next page. Scroll down to the setting Posts by Me. Change this using the drop-down box on the right. We recommend the Only Friends setting.

n Who can see your personal info: Facebook has a section of your profile called Personal Info,but it only includes your interests,activities,and favourites. Other arguably more personal information is not encompassed by the Personal info setting on Facebooks Privacy Settings page. That other information includes things like your birthday,your religious and political views,and your relationship status.

From your Profile page,go over to the Settings menu and click Privacy Settings from the list. Click Profile Information from the list of choices on the next page. Locking down birthday to Only Friends is wise here. And keep in mind,any setting besides Only Friends is just thata stranger.

n Keep your data off search engines: When you visit Facebooks Search Settings page,a warning message pops up. The message reads: There have been misleading rumours recently about Facebook indexing all your information on Google. This is not true. Facebook created public search listings in 2007 to enable people to search for your name and see a link to your Facebook profile. They will still only see a basic set of information.

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While that may be true to a point,the second setting listed on this Search Settings page refers to exactly what youre allowing Google to index. If the box next to Allow is checked,youre giving search engines the ability to access and index any information youve marked as visible by Everyone.

To keep your data out of the search engines,go to the Settings menu and click Privacy Settings. Click Search. Click Close on the pop-up message that appears. On this page,uncheck the box labelled Allow next to the second setting Public Search Results. That keeps all your publicly shared information out.

NYT Courtesy: ReadWriteWeb