by Ray Langley

Created on: September 22, 2010

How to protect your personal information on Facebook

 Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook for friends to share and communicate with each other, without actually seeing the people in person. Users initially were limited to the Harvard University and then the site shared with all the Ivy League schools before eventually having gone public in 2004. Along the way have been a few lawsuits for Zuckerberg and Facebook (original Facemash), a lot of security questions, and growing concerns, as Facebook becomes more a part of people’s lives. How to protect your personal information on Facebook is one of the biggest questions out there.

 Facebook beginners do not get a walk through tour of the site, or a warning of what is public and what is private for the users. Some information is completely private if the user chooses, while other information (demographical information) is gathered and used to place advertisements in the margins of the pages the user views. There are public search profiles, and searches with in the network, and even not using your real name is not as anonymous as it seems. Knowing how to protect users on Facebook and other social networking sites should be “Internet 101,” but it is not.

 When creating a profile on Facebook, the system uses email confirmation to verify the users identity, do not use your main email address. All the important notices and communications will come across on Facebook, and really after the initial creation of the account the only use the email has is “lost” password recovery. Use an email you can access, but does not connect with your current contacts. The first reason, Facebook is displaying that email publically until the user chooses to hide it in the profile settings. Secondly, Facebook will try to creep into your email’s address book to invite people to join Facebook.

 Not using your exact birth date, or your whole name, do not tag your parents or siblings as relatives, add them as friends as your relationship warrants, but only let the people you know, have that knowledge. Why? Date of birth and mother’s maiden name are the two identifiers most used by creditors. Finally, do not add people you do not know, and even skip some of the shady people that you do know. Mark Zuckerberg, created this social network for friends to share, and it is a guarantee that his information on Facebook is secure through the account settings and the application setting, so unless you know him personally, do not bother to send him a “Farmville” request.

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