Take Complete Control of Your Privacy on Facebook

Keeping your privacy secure in today’s world of social networks, mobile Internet and phone cameras is really hard. There are many people you’re friends with online but still, you don’t want to share some information with your boss, school mates, parents or even some friends.

Facebook, being one of the biggest social networks today, kicked in the back by Google Plus, realized how they need to give out more control to their users, particularly privacy options. I’m going to show you how to get basic control over your Facebook account.

Limiting Access Rights for Applications

As you might know, every application you use within your Facebook account needs you to authorize some access rights. Often you just allow them access to your personal information, but they might even ask for permission to post on your wall or post on your behalf.

You might not care about that, but your friends might, because you’re spamming them with those posts that an application generates. There are 2 ways to control an application on Facebook:

• Refuse the permission; meaning you won’t be able to use the application;
• Revoke non-essential permission after the app has been set up.

The first option is quite obvious; no permissions, no application. The second one however is interesting; at first you should grant all permissions the application is requesting. Afterwards, just open up Facebook’s Privacy Settings, click Edit Settings in the Apps and Websites and then Edit Settings in the Apps you use section.

Finally, you’ll get a list of applications which are using your Facebook information. By clicking on the Edit link, a window will open up where you’ll be able to revoke the permissions that are not optional for the application.

Control Your Privacy

Now you know how to tain applications and increase your privacy level for a tiny bit. But the biggest part in privacy control is you. Here are some things you should take care about:

• Don’t click on every link you find in your Facebook Newsfeed. Do you really need to “see this pic of a girl when her boyfriend told her…; it’s an (obvious) trap.
• Don’t add every application you get a request from. Do you really need to play all those *Ville games;
• Don’t enter into every contest that you find on Facebook. The prize you might get is a cheap way for someone to get your information.

Make sure to set up your privacy settings accordingly. Facebook now allows you to create different groups for people so you can share content for one group so the other one doesn’t see it.

One great feature is the approval of tags in posts and photos you’re in. If you’ve ever had a night out with friends who brought cameras, you know what I’m talking about. You’d get tagged, the photo would show up on your wall and all the hell would break loose. In Facebook’s Privacy Settings you can change the way you want those tags to work.

Take some time and set up those settings. Remove applications you’re not using, make some restrictions to the ones you do use. Internet Privacy may seem irrelevant today, but as social media and social media marketing gets bigger, those data will be even more valuable. If you don’t have problems with your privacy, that’s fine, but in the future somebody might use that against you.
Now go ahead and share this post with your friends, persuade them into doing the same thing. It’s for your own sake.