Facebook Privacy: 10 Settings To Check
Facebook's latest privacy changes include a number of welcome improvements. Learn how to tweak your settings for the least exposure.
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Over the years Facebook has had, shall we say, a "complicated" relationship with user privacy: It's dealt with privacy breaches, class-action lawsuits, and increasing pressure from governments to protect users.
Lately, it seems, Facebook has turned a corner.
Over the last several months, the social network has redesigned a number of privacy settings and launched new features as opt-in -- a far cry from its days of covert tweaks that sent users scrambling to reset their settings.
In April, Facebook overhauled its privacy center and added reminders to help users better understand what they share and with whom they share it. The social network even launched a privacy checkup tool, featuring a new cartoon mascot: the Privacy Dinosaur. "We just wanted to make sure you're sharing with the right people," a message accompanying the blue dino reads. "Follow these three steps and we can quickly make sure your privacy is up to date and everything is correct."
The privacy checkup tool covers a number of settings, including who you're posting to, which apps you use, and the privacy of your profile information.
"We want to do all we can to put power and control in people's hands," Facebook said in an announcement. "This new tool is designed to help everyone make sure they are sharing with just the audience they want."
Although Facebook's privacy settings still are far from perfect, its recent changes are a step in the right direction. Here's a look at 10 of Facebook's latest features and privacy settings and how to use them to avoid giving too much away.
One of Facebook's newest features, called Nearby Friends, alerts your friends when you're in close proximity. If you turn on this optional feature, you can pick and choose with whom you want to share your location -- all your friends, a small group, or specific individuals.
When you turn on Nearby Friends, you also turn on Facebook Location History. Facebook uses this information to build a database of the places you've been, even when you're not using the app. Facebook will add your locations to the Location History section of your activity log, but only you will be able to see this.
Although Facebook automatically turns on your Location History, you can switch it off. To do this, tap the More button, then Nearby Friends, then tap the gear icon. From that list, tap Location Settings, then switch the location history feature to off.
If you no longer use Nearby Friends, you can delete past locations from your history as well. To remove places individually, navigate to your activity log from your desktop and click More, then Location History. Click the delete button next to the location you want to remove, then select Delete from the drop-down menu. To clear your entire location history, click Clear Location History at the top of the page.
Your current profile photo and all your cover photos traditionally have been public by default. Recently, Facebook added a setting that lets you change the privacy setting of your old cover photos, a capability it is still gradually rolling out to all users. (Facebook already lets you change the privacy settings of your former profile photos.)
When you receive the update, navigate to your photo albums homepage and open the one titled Cover Photos. To change the audience of a photo, click it and then hover over the icon next to the date. Choose your new privacy setting for the photo from the drop-down menu.
For those posting to Facebook via a mobile device, Facebook's audience selector was hidden behind an icon that indicated your privacy setting. (The icon is a globe if you posted publicly, a two-person silhouette to share with friends, and a lock symbol if the post is private.)
Facebook has moved the audience selector to the top of the update status box in a new "To:" field, similar to what you see when you compose an email. This change makes it easier to see who you're about to share something with, which can prevent unintended sharing.
Malware comes in many forms on Facebook, most often in posts with a level of shock, horror, or salaciousness, such as a video that promises a peek into a celebrity sex tape or a video of something gruesome. If you become infected, the malware might collect information from your account, send status updates or messages that look like they're from you, or cover your account with ads that crash your computer.
To combat this problem, Facebook announced a partnership with Trend Micro and F-Secure to offer free anti-malware scanning that alerts you when it detects that your device might be infected. Facebook will alert you with a pop-up notification if it detects that your device is infected with malware. Depending on the type of malware, it will recommend that you download either F-Secure's malware scanning and cleanup technology or HouseCall from Trend Micro.
Facebook said each product contains distinct malware signatures for different threats, which could protect your device better than the anti-virus program you already run -- although you should not use the Facebook scans as an anti-virus replacement. The scanning software is maintenance free and will remove itself once it's done running, Facebook said.
Facebook shows you ads based on your actions -- such as liking a page or commenting on a story -- and the information you share, such as your current city or birthday. Facebook's so-called social ads can pair your actions with an advertiser's message and show them to your friends. For example, if your privacy settings allow your friends to see you liked a restaurant in Denver, your friends might see this action paired with the restaurant's ad.
To opt out of social ads, click the Ads tab on your privacy settings page. Click Edit next to the second option, "Ads and friends." At the bottom, change "Pair my social actions with ads for only my friends" to "No one" and click save changes.
Last month, Facebook unveiled a new mobile app feature that uses your device's microphone to identify songs, television shows, and movies so you can quickly share with friends what you're listening to or watching.
The audio-recognition capability, which Facebook is gradually rolling out, is opt-in and available only for Android and iOS users in the United States. If you turn it on, you'll see an audio icon moving on the screen when you compose a status update. If Facebook finds a match to what you're watching or listening to, you can add the song, TV show, or movie to your post.
According to Facebook, the audio feature identifies only TV and music; it cannot discern background noise or conversation. To its credit, the feature does not save or store any sound, and you can turn it off whenever you want by tapping the sound bar icon so it turns gray -- a good idea if you're not using it.
Facebook keeps track of everything you search for on the social network, including people and pages. Although you don't have much control over the other tidbits Facebook collects and stores about you and your habits, you can clear your search history.
To start, navigate to your Activity Log. This shows you all your recent Facebook activity, such as photos you commented on, pages you liked, and searches you performed using Graph Search. Click More from the left-side navigation, then click Search. Your entire search history will load, provided you have never deleted it before. From here, you can remove individual searches by clicking the Block icon and selecting Remove. If you want to clear all of it, click the Clear Searches link at the top.
When you sign up for a Facebook account, it allows search engines to index your profile. This means that when friends, family, and employers Google your name, for example, search results might list a link to your Facebook profile.
To prevent your profile from appearing in search engine results, visit your account settings page and click the privacy tab on the left. Click Edit next to the last option, "Do you want other search engines to link to your timeline?" and uncheck the box. It might take some time for search engines to stop showing the link to your profile in its search results.
At Facebook's F8 developer conference in April, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook Login, the button that allows third-party apps and websites to use Facebook login credentials, will support anonymous login.
Anonymous login lets you log into apps so you don't have to remember usernames and passwords, but it doesn't share personal information from Facebook. Before, people using Facebook Login had to allow the website or app to access certain information in their profiles.
This feature is only available on a limited number of apps and websites, but Facebook plans to extend it. Keep an eye out for this more private way to use websites and apps.
When your Facebook friends use games and applications, the applications might collect some of your own info, including your bio, birthday, photos, videos, hometown, and more. Often this is for personalization purposes: Say, for example, your friend downloaded a music app. The app might request his friend list and other information so it can show him which of his friends also use the app and what they're listening to.
If you don't want apps and websites to access your information through your friends, start by visiting your privacy settings page and click the Apps tab on the left. Click Edit next to the second option, "Apps others use," and uncheck the options you don't want to share.
Apps and websites can still access other information not included in this list, such as your friend list, gender, and other information you've made public. If you want to opt out of allowing access to this information, you can turn off all platform apps, which is the option above this one. If you do so, you won't be able to use any games or applications on Facebook.
When your Facebook friends use games and applications, the applications might collect some of your own info, including your bio, birthday, photos, videos, hometown, and more. Often this is for personalization purposes: Say, for example, your friend downloaded a music app. The app might request his friend list and other information so it can show him which of his friends also use the app and what they're listening to.
If you don't want apps and websites to access your information through your friends, start by visiting your privacy settings page and click the Apps tab on the left. Click Edit next to the second option, "Apps others use," and uncheck the options you don't want to share.
Apps and websites can still access other information not included in this list, such as your friend list, gender, and other information you've made public. If you want to opt out of allowing access to this information, you can turn off all platform apps, which is the option above this one. If you do so, you won't be able to use any games or applications on Facebook.
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