by Leigh Goessl

Created on: May 15, 2010

Social networks on the surface often give the impression of being a closed area because they tend to be personable and welcoming, but the reality is most websites are pretty public places. Facebook, now the most popular network on the web, has over 400 million members and counting.

That's a lot of people to potentially share and exchange a lot of information with, and this doesn't even include third party websites.

The good news is Facebook does offer some privacy setting tools to help keep control over personal information. The bad news is the process has become extremely cumbersome.

By default Facebook used to keep personal information hidden from people who were not connections, or "friends", however the pendulum has swung and now members must be diligent and keep on top of the continuous changes to privacy policies if they want to protect their personal information from public viewing or Facebook sharing of information.

In 2010 Facebook now allows third parties access to personal information and has set the default for members as opting to share. As a result Facebook members have to go through each and every link to decide what information they do and don't want shared and who they want to be able to see it.

If you are a member of the network struggling with sorting all the new settings out, here are a few Facebook privacy tips that can help you out and make choices over who can and cannot see your personal information. It is important to note you must visit each Account Setting link one at a time and then visit the links/buttons of all the subcategories.

The first thing to do is navigate to the upper right hand side of your profile page and select the "Account" link. When the drop down menu appears, select "Privacy Settings".

(From here you'll want to visit each subcategory one at a time, you'll have to click "Back to Privacy" after accessing each link).

Here is a list and description of each link:

>Personal Information and Posts

Here you'll want to scroll down and set who you want to see for each category relating to personal information and posts.

Scroll down and set your choices one at a time for "Bio and Quotations", "Birthday", "Interested In and Looking For", "Religious and Political Views", "Album Settings", Allow friends to post on my Wall", and "Comments on Posts".

The options for each will be "Everyone" "Friends of Friends" "Only Friends" and "Customize"; with the latter you can block individuals or set the information to be viewed only by

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