Category Archives: Facebook Tricks

Adjust Default Privacy Settings, Facebook, Facebook Secrets, Facebook Tricks, Privacy

Facebook Stalking – how to stop it

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Even though you may have your Facebook contact info privacy settings for your phone number set to ‘friends only’ or ‘only me’, did you know that anyone can find you on Facebook using that phone number? Read that again. You’re right. It doesn’t make sense. But, that’s Facebook, right? Read on and we’ll tell you how to stop complete strangers from stalking you and finding you on Facebook.

1. Go to your privacy settings page. Here is how you get there:

Photo of Privacy Settings link
Down arrow, then click on Privacy Settings.

 

2. On the page that pops up, look for the words ‘How you connect’. This is where you edit the settings for how people search for you. If you don’t change the settings here, anyone can find you using your phone number, the one that you might have given Facebook, or your email address. This is how it looks:

Photo of Facebook Privacy settings page
How you connect, that’s what you’re looking for.

 

3. This ‘How you connect’ setting is not  overridden by your basic info settings. If you have your phone number listed in your basic info and if you have that set to ‘friends only’ or only me’, anyone can still search for you using that phone number. Sad but very true. Here are the settings that we suggest:

Photo of Facebook search settings.
We suggest that you set this to ‘Friends’.

 

4. If your friends happen to know your phone number, they can find you on Facebook. If they know your email address, they can find you. Then again, if anyone knows your phone number or email, they can find you on Facebook…unless you change this setting. Sure, anyone can search for your real name and they may or may not find you, depending on how many other people share your name and whether you used your real name or your nickname when you signed up. In other words, people can still find you, old school friends, ex-lovers, whoever, but they won’t be able to link up your phone number to your Facebook account. Change it now!

 

Working backwards here, your friends won’t be able to see your phone number on Facebook if you have this particular privacy setting:

Photo of Phone Number privacy settings
You decide…Only me or Friends or whatever you want.

OK, if your friends already know your phone number, that’s fine. With your phone number privacy set to ‘only me’ , at least they won’t be able to find the number on Facebook. If you set this to ‘friends’, then they can find your number here. Either way, using the privacy settings outlined above, no one will be able to search for you using your phone number.

Are we chock full of paranoia? Not really. Consider this scenario: You apply for a job. Obviously, you have to provide a telephone contact number. If that number is linked to your Facebook account, the person who is hiring you can search for you on Facebook using that number. Like it or not, they can find out quite a bit about you, depending on your privacy settings. If you remove your email and your phone number from your search settings (unfortunately you can’t separate them), then no one can find you that way.

Lastly, should Facebook even have your phone number? Think about that for a while. Sure, they say that they need it in case your account is compromised. Hmmmm, really? Your phone number is a direct link to you and/or your home. Mull that over for a while.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Adjust Default Privacy Settings, Create a List, Facebook, Facebook Secrets, Facebook Tricks, Layered Privacy

Layered Privacy on Facebook – Part 2

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In our last post we divided our Facebook friends into different lists (groups). Here’s the link, in case you missed it: Layered Privacy on Facebook – Part 1  This time we’ll show you how to separate your posts and some of your activity, in order to keep the posts from being seen by everyone on your friend list.

Remember that anything you comment on that isn’t yours is wide open. You can’t hide anything that isn’t your own, including comments that you make on another person’s photo,note,share, or post. No can do!

OK, now that we have that straightened out, here’s how to control who sees what you post:

1. Go to your normal Facebook page, not your Timeline. Click on the word Facebook up on the top left.

2. We’re going to add a photo as a test. Click on Add Photo/Video to bring up this menu:

Photo of Facebook menu
Note that the current default setting is ‘Friends’. Keep that in mind for later.

 

3. Click on the little down arrow just to the right of the word Friends. Your menu may differ, depending on your default privacy setting. (It may say Public which is a big no-no. Nothing you post should be shared with the Public unless you are a celebrity or a celebrity wannabe.) Whatever it says, click on the down arrow to bring up a menu that looks like this:

Photo of Facebook Menu
Look for ‘See all lists’ at the bottom.

 

4. Click on the words ‘See all lists’ to bring up the following menu which will show all of the lists that you made last time. Here it is:

Photo of Facebook Menu
All of your lists will be shown on this menu. You might need to scroll up or down to see them all.

 

5. For this exercise, we’re going to share it with our Family, no one else. Click on Family (or some other group) to put a check mark beside it. If you don’t have a list or group named Family, choose another one. If you see where this is going, skip out of class and do something else. The last section is important though, so maybe you want to stick around.

Photo of Facebook Menu
We’ve chosen Family here but you’re on your own. Choose any group you want or choose multiple groups.

 

6. Once you choose which lists you want to share your photo with, you can upload the pic. Only those lists that you’ve chosen will be able to see or comment on the photo. No one else will see the photo or the comments on it.

You’re done. However, if you sort out your Facebook posts using this method, there is one more thing to remember. Read this:

Tip: Whatever your setting was for your last post, that setting is now your default setting. If you chose Family as the list you will share your photo/note/video with, your next photo/note/video or share will be visible to only that list. Read that again if you’re not clear on it. You have to change the setting for everything you post from now on. Safer, perhaps, but kind of a pain, too. 

This is important. Let’s say you post a questionable pic and share it with the wrong group. Oooops! After all of this ranting about layered privacy, we still think it’s best to have separate Facebook accounts. This isn’t crucial unless you are kind of ‘out there’, right? If you just post pics of kittens and fishing trips and weddings, stick with this method. If you have a wild night life and a staid home life, think having two or more Facebook accounts.

As always, questions and comments are welcome. Our Facebook posts are the most popular on this site. If you want us to write about something that’s bugging you, let us know in a comment.

Thanks for reading!

 

Adjust Default Privacy Settings, Create a List, Facebook, Facebook Tricks, Layered Privacy

Layered Privacy on Facebook – Part 1

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We’ve talked before about creating a separate Facebook profile, just in case you need an extra layer of privacy. Now, we’re going to show you another way to protect your privacy while using only one account. It’s a bit complicated and it only works for things that you post but we think it might help some of you. Stay tuned for subsequent posts on this. We can’t do it all in one post.

Here’s how to isolate parts of your profile:

 The theory works like this: out of say 100 friends, 15 of them are family, 30 are close friends and the rest are simply acquaintances that you’ve picked up over time. Your family photos are probably private. Maybe you don’t want to share all of your birthday photos with your other 85 friends. By the same token, that party at Mickey’s last week isn’t something that you want to share with your family. Get it? You want to share some things with some friends, but not others.

The first step is to sort your friends out into groups. You want to make lists to keep them all separate. Here’s how to sort your friends into lists:

1. Make sure you are logged-in to your account, right? Then, click on your profile photo up on the top right to bring up the timeline. Then, click on the little box that says Friends. You might have to click on the right side of the boxes if your Friends box is tucked underneath your Likes and Photos, etc. Ultimately, you want to see this page (or one like it):

Photo of Facebook Friend Page
A full page of your Facebook friends.

 

2. Now we get into some hovering. Hovering is when you rest your cursor (mouse) over something but you don’t click on it. You hover, OK? If you click, it makes things much more difficult so just hover. Practice. We’ll wait. (insert coffee break here…)  Got it? Good. Start at the top left and hover over that person’s name. This is what you want to see:

Photo of Facebook Friend menu
Your first hover shows this. Wait, there’s more!

 

3. Hover over the word friends. You’ll see this next :

Photo of Facebook Friends menu
Here are all the settings for that particular friend. Right now, you’re looking for the words ‘Show all lists’

 

4. If you have hundreds of friends, this could take a while. Do 10 or 20 a day, something like that. Anyway, this time you get to click. Click on ‘show all lists’ to bring out this menu:

Menu of Facebook Lists
We have some lists set up, even some Trial ones for this post. Your menu will be different.

 

5. Now, you might have some lists already. Facebook arbitrarily makes some lists for you, based on geography or school or some arcane algorithm that only they understand. You want to start dividing your friends into different groups. Take some time and think about it. A list of family members is an obvious choice but some of your family might be more open-minded than others. Then again, they are in contact with your other family members so the next step is to figure out how discreet they are. You get the gist of what we’re trying to say here.

Click on the words, New List. Like this:

Photo of New List slot
Type in the name of your new list.

 

6. Type in the name of your new list, Men from Mars sounds good, and continue on through all of your friends. Sure, it’s a chore but you might find it easier than creating a separate profile. If you only have 50 or 60 friends, this won’t take long. Remember that some friends can be on more than one list. You’ll work it out, no problem.

 

Tip: Remember, when you add a new friend, make sure you put them on one of the lists you’ve created or start a new list. 

 

This is step one. As this week progresses, we’ll get deeper into the layers of privacy as we attempt to simplify your Facebook experience and protect your reputation.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Adjust Default Privacy Settings, Facebook, Facebook Secrets, Facebook Tricks, Turn off location mapping

Facebook – Guard your privacy

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If Facebook had its way, we would have no walls on our houses and we’d all be wearing ID chips to show our current location. If you think this idea is something from science fiction, think again. Right now, many of you are telling Facebook and Twitter and Foursquare and WeChat(Weixin) and other social networking sites exactly where you are. Here’s some what-ifs for you.

1. What if you had a stalker, someone from work or school or your neighborhood, who really wanted to get closer to you? How would he or she do that? Well, getting you to add him or her was a friend on Facebook would be a start. Do you know all of your friends? Do you know if they are really who they say they are? Chances are, if you connect to social networking through your mobile device or tablet, you’re opening yourself up to this kind of sketchy activity.

2. Do you drive a fancy car, say a Mercedes or BMW? To most people, driving a fancy car is a status symbol. That’s easy to figure out, isn’t it? Let’s say that some burglar is looking for a nice score in your neighborhood. Let’s say they figure out your name and address. With a bit of work, they could track you on some social networking site and know when you are not at home. That’s a lot easier than your might think. Even if you are just out shopping, maybe across town or in the next city, and you connect to one of your social networking sites through your phone, you are most likely telling that burglar exactly where you are and approximately how long it will be before you return home. You might as well leave a sign on your door, “Out for a bit, help yourself.”

3.  You are applying for a job or an internship and someone wants to see what kind of person you are, aside from your resume or application. Maybe you’re in a bar, having a rousing good time and you tweet about it, maybe post some pics on Facebook, and maybe this bar you’re in just isn’t too classy. We’re thinking of somewhere that might have exotic dancers, mud- wrestling or midget tossing, you know? Sure, you are free to go to those places but do you really want future employers to know about it before they get to know the real you? Go ahead, tweet/post/comment from wherever you want but once you give any social media the ability to pinpoint your current location, you’re opening the door to this kind of snooping.

Photo of mobile phone with Facebook statuses on it.
In this photo, Kevin is away for the weekend. We even know where he is. Can you see any danger in posting that information?

 

TIP: Get to know your mobile device or tablet. Figure out where you can turn your location settings off, or on, depending on your personal wishes. We’re not saying that telling others where you are is a bad thing, it’s just that sometimes it’s definitely not a good thing.

 

Here is a link that we found which describes real situations where location mapping caused problems. Check it out and, hopefully, this will reinforce out point:

http://blog.sherweb.com/geo-tagging-convenience-can-be-dangerous/

 

Thanks for reading!