Computer Repair in Kalamazoo

Facebook actually gives you quite a bit of control over who has access to what on your page, IF you know where and what to look for.  Unfortunately there are over 170 options for you to choose from, and they change all the time!  A major concern of ours, and problem for our Kalamazoo friends, is that the default security and privacy settings are fairly relaxed and the potential consequences are not readily apparent. If you’d rather not let your privacy settings become a full time job, how do you deal with it?  You drill it down to the essentials.  We here at Geek Easy Computers have put together a list of 5 Essential Facebook Security Settings for your convenience:

1) Friends Lists

This feature lets you to segment all of your friends into groups and you can assign privacy settings to each group.  An example setup would be three friend lists: Friends, Family, and Professional. Facebook will automatically create lists like “your local town” and “your alma mater,” which is a good start, but the best control over who can see which items you post comes from customizing your groups, looking at the settings and tagging the things you share accordingly. The three things to know about privacy settings are as follows:

You can add each friend to more than one friend group.
Friend lists act like “tags” on other social websites and blogs.
Friend lists can have specific privacy policies applied to them.

If you have close friends, you might want to share content with them that your co-workers don’t need to see. If you party all the time or hold certain, strong political beliefs, do you really want them to follow you to the office? On the other side of that coin, you might repeatedly share work or trade information that isn’t relevant to college classmates or your family. Segmenting people into these groups lets you control who can see the things you post and control whether or not it’s necessary or relevant for everyone to know.

2) Account > Privacy Settings > Sharing on Facebook

Controlling how you share content is complicated and can be frustrating, but it’s essential that you look at the settings and decide for yourself what you want to share and with whom. You have an easy way out: You can share content with Everyone, Friends of Friends, or Friends only.  If you’re using Friend Lists (as you should be), you can customize sharing options even more with your list preferences.  It’s important to note the “Preview my Profile” option which lets you see your profile as someone else would. Setting all the options just right can sometimes be tricky. When in doubt, use this tool to confirm what your friends can see.

This option is central to keeping any sort of privacy on Facebook.  If you don’t take time to set this up, your life is wide open for the world to see, and the other privacy settings won’t prevent that. As mentioned above, make use of the “Preview my Profile” option whenever you make a change to verify it’s what you wanted to do.

3) Account > Privacy Settings > Sharing on Facebook > Customize Settings > Friends can check me in to Places

You should configure three settings for check-ins if you are really into posting where you are as you travel around throughout the day.  The main setting you’re going to want to modify is the ability of your friends to check you into places without your permission.  Having someone else telling the world where you are can be unpleasant and even dangerous in some cases. If you want to avoid it, disable this feature.

This is especially important for teens.  Checking in is popular in that age group and they don’t always realize that it can put them in a precarious situation.  Having total control on where you check in and who sees it helps protect them (and you) from that. Remember that the term “Facebook stalker” didn’t spring up out of nowhere, and there are potential risks involved in publishing where you are at any given moment.

4) Account > Privacy Settings > Connecting on Facebook

The settings for connecting, which means sharing information about you: Your photo, gender, age, hometown etc.  These settings determine how people can find you on Facebook.

The more you share here could make it easier for your friends to find you, but it can also expose things about your life you might not want the world to know. When in doubt, it’s always best to err on the side of caution. Most of the people in your life will have already found you on Facebook, and it’s easy enough to let people know in person or via email how to find you on case-by-case basis.

5) Account > Privacy Settings > Apps and Websites > Instant Personalization

It lets third-party websites personalize your experience, which can be nice, but it also allows access to your personal data. You can opt-out on individual third-party websites, such as Pandora, by clicking on “No Thanks” when asked about it. On Facebook you can completely disable it by leaving the checkbox before “Enable instant personalization on partner websites” unchecked.

You might want to have everything about you available to your closest friends on Facebook, but you wouldn’t necessarily want to share that with every company that develops apps or connects their website with Facebook. Remember that this is the information age, and companies make a great deal of money by collecting and using the information you give them. There are likely countless ways to spam, solicit and annoy you with data you give up willingly if you’re not careful.

Just remember:
If you set everything to the strictest available privacy settings, people may have a harder time finding you on Facebook.
If your online presence is an open book, don’t be surprised when people read it.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us!
For more info Click here –> https://geek-easy.com/contact-us/

420 N. Church St. STE 1
Kalamazoo, MI 49007
(269)548-TECH (8324)
info@geek-easy.com