Tag Archives: Qzone privacy

Lock Your Qzone – update



Our post on locking your Qzone was correct but one reader couldn’t duplicate one of the menus so here we are again. We’ll post another path to your security settings in case you can’t get to them as per the previous blog entry. Here we go:

1. Open your Qzone. Your main page will look like this but you can get to the security menu from any page:

Photo of basic Qzone menu
This is the area that you want to find at the top of the page.

2. Hover your cursor (mouse) over the third set of symbols to bring up this menu:

Photo of hover over menu.
Hover over the third set of symbols, underlined above, then click the circled symbol.

3. On the next page, look for the set of symbols on the right. Here they are:

Photo of Qzone menu
Look for the set of symbols that we’ve circled and click on them.

4. Once you click the circled symbols, this page will come up. What you are doing here is finding your profile settings and editing them, just as you do in Facebook or any other social networking site:

Photo of Qzone security page
Under the padlock icon, click the first set of symbols.

5. Clicking on the circled set of symbols will bring up the same menu as shown in our post about locking your profile. That article is here: Locking your Qzone

This is the menu:

Photo of Qzone security settings menu
Hovering over the circled set of symbols will bring out the menu just below it. This is where you can lock your zone.

TIP: As we said earlier, these settings are no different than the ones on Facebook or your MSN zone, basically the same as any other social networking site. The difference is that these settings are all in Chinese. If you use Google Chrome, the job is a bit easier. Part of the fun of all of this is getting to know some Chinese symbols and working out these settings on your own. It’s a mystery, right? Everyone loves a mystery. We hope this helped you. Let us know if it didn’t.

Thanks for reading!

 

Protect Your Qzone from Strangers



QQ is a chat application from China, created by Tencent Inc. Whole most users are Chinese, QQ is slowly spreading around the world. Many Westerners, including some of us here at Computers Made Simple, have used it for years.

QQ is free, of course, and with every account comes a few gigabytes of space to share photos, stories, etc. with your friends. By default, your zone is open to everyone but it’s probably a wise move to keep your Qzone somewhat private. You can lock your photo albums but if you want to lock your whole Qzone to strangers, here is how you do it.

1. Head to your Qzone. If you are using the International (English) version, the chat interface will be in English but your Qzone will be in Chinese. With the latest version, you have to add the Qzone app first, then you can go to  your zone.

2. On the main page, look for the gear up on the top, just to the right of your profile pic:

Photo of the gear to change your Qzone settings
The gear is where you can set your privacy limits.

3. Hover your cursor (mouse) over the gear to bring up this menu:

Photo showing dropdown menu
The one you want is the third choice, highlighted here.

4. Choose the third group of symbols. This will bring up this page:

Photo of Qzone privacy menu
All the settings you need are here.

5. At this point, this zone is open only to friends. The choice on the left will make it open to everyone, the right one means it’s locked to everyone except the user and the middle one has its own internal settings.

TIP: If you use QQ for a while, you’ll receive many requests to be friends. Some users are looking for partners, some are looking for English speakers and some are just looking for friends. Before you can use the next set of privacy limits, create a new group in your friend list. Name it Strangers or whatever you want, but put all new requests that you accept in this group until you know more about the person you care chatting with. Don’t worry, there is substantially more spam and fake ‘hot girls’ on Yahoo than there are on QQ.

6. If you have made sub-groups inside your list of Friends, this is where you can choose which groups have access to your zone. Hover over the light brown string of symbols, in this case they are just to the right of the 0/6. This menu will come up:

Photo showing which groups can see your Qzone.
Every group selected here will be able to enter your zone.

7. What you’re doing in this menu is selecting the groups that can enter your zone. Each group that you select by clicking in the box beside the name, will be able to enter your Qzone. In this example none of the groups can enter this person’s Qzone.

8. Once you have finalized your group selection, make sure you click the Save button at the bottom, the one that looks like this:

Photo showing the Chinese symbols for 'save changes'
Look for the button that looks like this. Click it to save your changes.

9. Once you click this button, your choices will be saved for you. That’s it! Your Qzone is now private.

Thanks for reading!