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There are many pros and cons to Facebook (or FB, to the
savvy). In this Part 2 of the three-part series, we’ll look at
security considerations. As with any online tool, there are
aspects of Facebook that can risk your reputation and/or security.
When you first create your Facebook account, certain default settings
are applied to your account. They control the visibility of your
personal information, and also control how others may reference your
profile. Here is some advice on how to protect yourself on
Facebook:
The first and most basic caution is that you should take control of the
visibility of your information. You can choose to show or hide
basic personal information like marital status, gender, and
birthday. This is controlled from the Information panel on your
Profile page.
The visibility of the rest of your profile is controlled by the Settings
menu item at the top right of your Facebook screen. These
settings control who is allowed to write on your wall (FB jargon for
posting their comments on your profile), who sees you in a search,
whether your friends can see your list of other friends, whether
friends see what you’ve written on somebody else’s wall,
whether friends can see photos in which you have been tagged, and many
other settings.
In each case, you can choose whether information gets shown to
“Everyone”, “Friends of Friends”, or
“Only Friends”. As soon as you create a profile, you
should immediately go through all of the menu items in Settings and
make sure that you’re only showing what you want to show.
There are some other cautions that you should be aware of, too.
Firstly, remember that Facebook is a public forum! Anything you
say or upload is potentially instantly visible to the world – and
even if you delete it, Facebook, or other users of Facebook, may still
keep a copy. So the photos of you wearing a lampshade at your
last party might be too funny not to share, but imagine sharing them
with business associates and/or potential employers. Not so funny
any more.
Also, it’s easy to keep your friends updated by quickly popping
in a comment about what you’re currently doing. But
remember basic security practices: “Just leaving for a
fabulous 2-week vacation in the tropics” might sound like a great
post, but you’re actually saying “My house will be vacant
for the next two week – walk right in!” A much safer
post would be “Just got back from my fabulous 2-week tropical
vacation” – it’ll still make your friends green with
envy, but it won’t advertise to the world that your house is an
easy target.
Another heads-up: beware when joining Networks. When you
join a network, your privacy settings automatically change so that all
members of your network can see your information. This means
that, if you join the Calgary network, Facebook changes your settings
so that everyone who belongs to the Calgary network (potentially
thousands of people), can now see your information. If you choose
to join a network, immediately go back into your privacy settings and
check to make sure they’re still OK.
The bottom line about Facebook security: whatever you put up
there is potentially visible to a LOT of people. For your own
peace of mind, give serious thought to whatever you post.
Next month (May 2009), stay tuned for how Facebook and other social networking sites can help you publicize your business!
Read Part 1 of 3
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By: Diane Henders, Bright Ideas Personalized
Learning Inc. Bright Ideas Personalized Learning Inc. is a
Calgary-based mobile computer training company that provides on-demand,
cost-effective training to corporations and individuals. For more
information about this topic, or to schedule a training session, please
call (403) 269-2347.
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