by Stan Rezaee

Created on: September 13, 2009

Protecting your personal information on Facebook is a no brainier; all it requires is some understanding of the network with the use of a little common sense. Sadly because many fail to learn the basics; they have exposed their personal information online. Understanding this combination will help any user protect their personal information on Facebook.

A lot of protecting your personal information begins with using some common sense. Common sense should dictate what you should and should not write or upload on your profile. For starters don't write your Social Security, bank account, telephone / cell number, or your home address. This might seem like common sense but so many pass it on in comments online.

Also you want to avoid uploading photos that depict personal moments or sensitive information. Their are just an abundance of stories of how such photos were used against an individual just by looking up their Facebook profile. If the photo is sensitive or compromising of ones character then don't post them on Facebook.

But using simple common sense is only half of the ways to protect your personal information. the other half requires the user to understand and know about all the privacy options available on Facebook. Online networking site offer its users a varity of security features that would protect ones profile.

Its too common to see users set their profile on private (meaning only friends could brows the profile). This might at first seem like the perfect solution to the problem of unwanted viewers; but their are ways for some one to examine who you are. Hence it helps to understand all of the options available.

Private messages on personal time could be sent from one user to another by using the inbox as opposed to simply posting it on their profile. The inbox option allows only person A (you) and person B (friend) to see the message. Posting it on the profile would have allowed anyone to read that message.

Then their is setting the privacy of your photos. Facebook allows the users the option of who is allowed to view the pics. It could be everyone, friends or a selected group of friends. This feature could also be used to avoid Facebook from publishing unwanted news like adding applications, what your doing, who you talked too, etc.

Finally avoid adding any idiot who sends a friend request or send out requests to a lot of unknown strangers. Some people like to play the "collect a friend game just to boost up the number of people they know online. This is actually dangerous because one would not actually take the time to communicate with each person hence you have the possibility of a threat freely browsing your profile that was once private.

Understanding your Facebook and using common sense will allow any user to enjoy networking online with out having to expose their personal information to an unwanted individual or group.

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