COLUMNIST DC TECH TAlk Facebook security 101 F Best practices to keep your identity safe by StePhane laverdiere ity and click Limit Past Posts. acebook has changed the way we communicate, the way we share experiences with others and even the way we work. This revolutionary communication portal allows us to stay up to date with our friends’ daily lives, play games together and talk about the latest trends. But do you ever wonder whom you can really trust on your friends list and what others outside of your friends list can learn about you? Before you start posting those pho-tos of your children at the beach, perhaps it’s time to think about im-proving your Facebook security. Our handy guide tells you all you need to know about securing your account and keeping your personal data safe. Start with the basics There is no need for you to share any personal data on Facebook if you do not want to. In fact, the only part of your life that needs to be shared is the name on your account — and even this can be a pseudonym if you don’t want to use your real name. There is no valid reason why you need to pub-lish your phone number, hometown, address or marital status. And yet millions have this personal data plas-tered all over their profiles. The ad-vice here is to treat your personal details with discretion. Privacy settings: give ac-cess to the right people A major headache with Facebook security is that it all looks so unnec-essarily complicated. But all it really takes to secure your Facebook account is a few clicks in the right place and you are done. The privacy settings on your ac-count determine who can see what based on their status. For example, you may want to lock down everything so only your friends can view your profile. Or you might want to adver-tise your profile to the entire world. Think about this setting very care-fully, paying attention to the type of information and photos you are likely to post. Do you really want them on public display? To lock down your privacy settings you will need to log in to your account. Click on the gear icon to the right of Home and select Privacy Settings. Look under “Who can see my stuff?”/ “Who can see your future posts?” You will now be given three options: Pub-lic, Friends and Custom. Public is exactly as the name suggests and shares your profile with the world. Changing this to Friends ensures only your friends can view what is on your profile. That includes status updates and photos. Now might also be a great time to have a bit of a “friend cull” and get rid of some of those unsavoury or unstable characters we all seem to pick up along the way. But wait, there’s more to be done here... What a lot of people don’t realize is these privacy settings only protect posts and photos from the moment you change your privacy settings. All of your older posts, photos and status updates will be visible to all and sun-dry. To ensure all of your older posts are covered by your new privacy set-tings, click Manage Past Post Visibil-Defining how others connect with you: be found or stay incognito? Even though you have locked down your profile tighter than Superman’s underpants, people will still be able to find your profile and connect with you. The next settings we need to look at are the How You Connect settings. This is quite an easy one to configure, but will depend on whether you are using Facebook for pleasure or for business use. Most businesses will want the whole world to find and connect with them. Settings here define who can send you a friend request, who can find you using your e-mail address or phone number and who can search for your profile using your name. Use these settings wisely – especially if you want to avoid a friend request from that ex from years ago. Timelines and tagging: control what your friends can say about you dr. STephAne LAverdiere is a graduate of the National University of Health Sciences in Lombard, Ill., and president and cofounder of Atlas Chiropractic Systems, a paperless office solution. He is also the founder of the Internet video marketing firm, ChiroVMail. He can be contacted at slaverdiere@ atlaschirosys.com or at 1-877-602-8527. 34 Canadian Chiropractor September 2013 While you can’t stop friends from talking about your antics at the office party in their status box, you can certainly stop them from tagging you in the incriminating party photos. You can now activate settings that ensure you are given an option to accept or reject a tag before it is published. Oh, and don’t forget about Facebook’s scary facial recognition capabilities. Turn this off so that your friends don’t receive suggestions to tag you through this feature. Next you may want to control who can post on your timeline, view your timeline posts or post to your friends and family, using the Timeline and Tagging link within your Facebook settings, at the left side of the screen. www.canadianchiropractor.ca
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor September 2013: Page 34
