11/10/2010

How to stay safe on Facebook!


I got a handbill which describes several ways for you to stay safe in social networking sites such as Facebook. Below is a list of ways in which you can protect yourself when you are online.

1. Use https://www.facebook.com to securely log into Facebook. This will prevent people who snoop on your network from seeing your password.

2. Limit the amount of personal information given to Facebook.(Especially your location,date of birth,contact details). Adjust the information shown to your friends by adjusting the privacy settings.

3. Make limited profile lists where you can initially add new friends to that list and after close inspection you may add them to the appropriate lists where more information about you is available.

4. Configure Facebook privacy settings to control the information shown to people and search engines.

5.Beware of phishing e-mail and suspicious links that look like they are from Facebook think twice before you click on a link.

6.Be very careful when adding friends. If possible,e-mail or call him/her to check if he/she has actually sent you a friend request prior to adding him/her.

7. Facebook has an inbuilt chatting application. Never chat with people you do not know or send information that could identify you.

8. Use strong password that no one can guess and make sure that you change it regularly. Be careful not to share your password with anyone.

9. Log into Facebook using only computers you trust so that software such as Keyloggers, which can capture your password, are avoided.

All the best in FB!.

By Janantha Marasinghe