4 tips to make your Facebook safer
With billions of people on Facebook globally, security issues seem to crop up frequently on this world’s most popular social-networking site. Safeguard your Facebook account with these four tips.
1. Make sure only your friends can see your Facebook
While strangers can see the main elements of your profile (name, picture and cover photo), you can ensure your actual Facebook profile can only be seen by your Facebook friends. Check our step-by-step guide to updating your Facebook’s privacy settings here.
2. Control who can contact you on Facebook
Keep in mind that sometimes long lost friends could be trying to track you down, but if the thought of strangers reaching out to you makes you worried, here’s how you can control it. Click on the padlock icon on the top-right of your Facebook page and then click “Who can contact me.” The default is “everyone” which allows people you may know but aren’t friends with on Facebook the chance to contact you. You can change it to the option of “Friends of friends” which means the person has to have at least one mutual friend with you before they can get in contact.
3. Hide the email address or phone number you signed up on Facebook with
Not only can people search your Facebook name, they can also search the email address or phone number you used to sign up to Facebook. To change this, click on the arrow at the top-right of your Facebook page. A dropdown menu will appear and click “Settings.” Now select “Privacy” from the menu and go to the “Who can look me up?”. There are options for people to look you up via email address, telephone number and search engines (like Google). The default setting is “Everyone” which you can change to “Friend of friends” or just “Friends.”
4. Set up login alerts
You can set up an alert on Facebook to notify you any time your account is accessed from an unknown computer or device. To do this, click the arrow at the top-right of your Facebook page and click “Settings.” Choose “Security” from the left hand side menu. “Login alerts” is the top option so click “Edit” and choose option to receive notifications.
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