Protecting Your Privacy on Facebook

Sharing Information On Social Networking Sites

I know lots of people who absolutely love Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter and that's great as long as we are careful. There are lots of good things about these networks, but my caution about these particular social networks (because of their sharing networking) is to be careful of what and how much personal information you publish on them! Even innocently mentioning to Aunt Betty or your best friend that you're going out to dinner and a movie on Saturday night or vacation on such and such dates is dream information for criminals.

Among many other red flag articles I've read over the past few months, the one that really was an eye opener was about a gang of burglars in New Hampshire who stole upwards to $200,000.00 worth of items in a short period of time from homes of people who had announced on Facebook about their lovely away from home plans!

These tech savvy criminals peruse these social sites and please don't think for one single minute that they can't easily find your home. It doesn't matter where you live because, unfortunately, these types of criminals are in every region worldwide. Be careful out there!

By Deeli from Richland, WA

Use Facebook Privacy Settings

Facebook has numerous privacy settings that you should utilize to protect yourself. Putting too much information on Facebook and not filtering who sees it sets you up for identity theft or worse. Here are some things to keep in mind when using Facebook:

• Be careful who you add as a friend. Once added, they can see all of your information and everything you post.
• Don't put your phone number or address on your profile.
• Avoid putting your birthday and other personal information on your profile. A lot of this information is used to verify your identity other places so it is key information for someone stealing your identity.
• Change your settings so that your profile, including your wall and photos, are only viewable by your friends.
• If someone is bothering you on Facebook, be sure to utilize your block list so that they can no longer access your profile.
• Remember that most things on the internet, stay on the internet. Be careful with what ends up there!