We live in Internet age, so we have to maintain our privacy. Facebook – The biggest social media networking site has surpassed 1 billion users worldwide. Here people enjoy networking and sharing photos and other kind of stuff, but do you know that sharing some information puts you in trouble?

In this post, we’ll discuss what kind of items or information that you share on profile or timeline put you at risk? and How to set your privacy?

1. Users share Too much personal information on Facebook like address, contact number, family photos, birthday and other type of sensitive information which can be used by bad guys, then it will be great trouble for you. You must make your personal information more private.

2. Don’t post your full address on Facebook. Some 40% of users listed their home address on the Facebook profile. Always keep in mind, The users with more personal information of Facebook were at greater risk of physical and identity theft.

3. People share pictures of their credit cards, debit cards, PAN cards etc. But showing it off on Facebook is like welcoming for identity theft.

4. Teenagers or new generation kids usually updates their status – “ Parents are Out, I am Home Alone.” Don’t post this type of status on Facebook EVER!! It something like walking into room of strangers and tell them you are alone at your home.

5. People used to share everything on Facebook like I’m going on vacation for a week, it probably be bad sign for you. Bad guys or we can say criminals are very smart or getting smarter and these posts can make you an easy target. It’s okay to be excited about vacations and it’s best to post pics of your vacation after you get back from it.

6. Facebook is social networking site and it’s fine to share your photos, your family and kids pic. But people give too much information about their kids online like – Their names, their school info, bathing pics or naked. It’s fine to post pics of your kids but limit these pics with your real/close friends and family.

7. Most of users accept the friend request from people even they don’t know. 46% of Facebook users accepted friend requests from strangers. Approx 60% users said they weren’t confident that their “friends” were really just people they know.

8. Some people share some kind of confession posts like, “I hate my job or boss” or “I am a drug addict”. Facebook is not a platform for confession and it can bring you a trouble like “You Got Fired!!”. One study estimated that “8% of companies fired someone for ‘misuse’ of social media.”

9. Most of people use their name as a password or use same password for multiple accounts. It will be very easy for anyone to guess it. Create a strong password that is easy to remember but not easy to guess. It should have at least 6-8 characters, and should include alpha-numeric and special characters.

10. People think that if they close the web page or exit the browser that also logs them out of Facebook. It doesn’t. The next person who goes to Facebook.com on that computer will find themselves already logged in—to your account.

11. Your boss and your co-workers have Facebook too. Most of users or we can say working users have a issue – How can we hide our personal posts or stuff from boss without unfriend him/her? We have solution of this problem in our next section!

12. One common problem faced by users – Annoying App Invitation. Are there any friend who send you requests of unwanted app and game?

13. Stressed out with too much unsolicited tagging by friends on Facebook? The post you tag the person in may also be added to that person’s Timeline. Tagging is fun, but when your friends starts tagging your name in too many unrelated photos and videos, it starts to become rather annoying.

Facebook Privacy and Security Setting Guide (With ScreenShots)

So now you are familiar with some privacy problems faced by users. Most of Facebook users are not aware about the privacy and security settings of their account. Here we’ll share information about your account privacy settings. These settings will help you to keep your information safe and secure.

For this, you need to go your account setting page. There is two easy ways:

• Just click the drop down arrow button at the top right corner of Facebook blue bar and then click ‘Settings’.

• If you’re logged in Facebook, you can type this link https://www.facebook.com/settings into your browser.

1. In “General Setting”, You can change your username, email and password. If you don’t have a strong password, create new one here.

2. You can get a notification when anyone log into your account from a new device or browser. In the SECURITY tab at the left side of your ACCOUNT SETTINGS, click Login alerts to ask Facebook to send you an email or text message if a different computer or mobile device logs into your account.

3. Code Generator is a cool security feature of Facebook. If you have a mobile, Facebook can send you a text message with a unique code to use when you log into Facebook from a different computer. This is a great feature that adds another level of security for users who login to Facebook from remote locations.

4. When you access your account, Facebook recognizes your computer or cell phone. Facebook can even tell you when your account is being accessed from somewhere else. If you notice any unknown device or location, click “End Session” to end the activity.

5. Facebook’s new legacy contact feature will let you hand over account access A legacy contact is someone you choose to manage your account after you pass away.

6. In “Privacy Section”, you can manage:

• Who can see your stuff?

• Who can contact you?

• Message filtering

• Post tagging

7. In this “Privacy Section”, you can limit the audience for old posts on your timeline. You can also individually change the audience of your posts.

8. In Timeline and Tagging section, “Views As” is a great feature to check out how your profile looks to public. Click ‘View as’ check your public profile to get the idea what your time-line and stuff is shown to public and friends.

9. As we mentioned before in this article, You are Stressed out with too much unsolicited tagging by friends on Facebook. Then you can review posts friend tag you in before they appear on your timeline. We suggest you, make it enable.

10. In “Manage Blocking” section, you can manage all the users, apps, event, pages that you have blocked or you wants to block anything. You can block someone to unfriend them and prevent them from starting conversations with you or seeing things you post on your timeline. It enables you to keep your personal information safe and unaccessible from hackers and spammers.

11. In “Manage Blocking” Section, you can add friends and people in your restricted list, now they only see the stuff and post you make public. Facebook doesn’t notify them when you add them to this list.

12. Do you wants your personal information to be used by third-party website to show you ads? No! Click the Ads tab at the left side to stop seeing online interest-based ads from all participating companies, set it to ‘No One’.

13. Friend List Privacy. Go to your profile and click ‘Friends’ Tab. Now, click ‘Edit Privacy’. 
Make the changes according your preference and save the changes.

Shortcut of Privacy and Security Settings

Want to shortcut of your privacy setting? Just click the “Padlock Icon” at the top right bar near the notification icon.

Here you can manage:

1. Who can see you future stuff and posts.

2. Activity log to review the posts, photos in which you’ve been tagged in, before it appears on timeline.

3. “View as” to see what other people see on your timeline.

4. In “Who can contact me” section, you can filter your messages. In basic filtering anyone can send you a message but in strict filtering only your friends can message you.

5. “How do I stop someone from bothering me?” – You want to block someone, Just enter their name or email address.

Privacy Settings for Your About Page

Click the “About” tab

• Edit privacy setting of any section according your preference.

• Don’t make your personal information “Public”.

• Don’t enter your full address.

• Don’t make your mobile number “Public” set to “Only Me”

• Don’t show your full date of birth.

Final Words

The profile picture and time-line cover photo are visible to public, you can’t set the privacy for these. But you must set the privacy setting for your photos and albums.

Don’t forget to log out from Facebook, if you’re not using.

For any information about privacy & security and other topics, check Facebook Help Center.

To know the latest privacy functions and policies, Read This Facebook Guide.