Secure facebook
You could post the wrong thing to the world and get in trouble at work, school, with family or even the law If you aren't careful. Having a Facebook account isn't great for your privacy.
Hackers and identity thieves are also watching.
If you think you already have settings set correctly, Facebook changes its settings and where they're located frequently so you should double-check regularly.
If you don't want people to find you easily, don't use the same username you use for other social media or as your email address.
Security
Go to Security tab by clicking the Security link in the left column.
turn on Login Notifications. This alerts you when someone logs in to your account from an unfamiliar gadget.
Login Approvals means you can only log in on a new computer or gadget if you have your phone with you to receive a special code. Even if a hacker gets your information, they'd need your phone as well to get in to your account. It's a little annoying at times, but the extra security is worth it.
Review your "Trusted Browsers." You might have logged in on a computer in the past - belonging to a friend or ex, for example - that you no longer want to have easy access.
Privacy
Privacy tab controls who can see what you post and who can contact and find you.
In "Who can contact me?" change "Who can send you friend requests?" to Friends of Friends. This keeps strangers from sending you friend invites you don't want. The exception is if you want old friends from school to be able to send you friend requests. You can also switch from Basic Filtering to Strict Filtering to weed out a lot of the messages you receive.
In the "Who can see my stuff?" menu, set "Who can see your future posts?" to Friends.
Under "Who can look me up?" you want to change the settings to "Friends," "Friends" and "No." This makes it much harder for strangers or stalkers to find you if they just have a phone number, email address or know your name. Keep in mind, this will also stop old friends from easily finding you.
Timeline and Tagging
In "Who can add things to my timeline?" you definitely want to limit who can post on your timeline to just "Friends." If you really want to make sure you control everything people see on your timeline, you can change that to "Only Me."
In "How can I manage tags people add and tagging suggestions?" you can set the settings to "On," "Only Me," and "No One." This keeps things you're tagged in, like photos, from automatically being visible to all your friends. It also keeps you from being tagged in photos you don't control, which can give away your face and name to people you don't know.
FOLLOWERS
Allow people who aren't your friends to see your posts in their News Feed. This is handy if you're an aspiring writer or artists. But for most people, you want to make sure "Who Can Follow Me" is set to "Friends."
Apps
They have a few settings that are serious privacy problems if they aren't changed.
A huge hidden privacy danger is "Apps others use." This controls what information about YOU apps your friends install can share with the app developer. Edit this and uncheck every box.
"Apps you use" allows you to control what apps are connected to your account. Click the X next to any apps you don't use to delete them. Or you can change "Use apps, plugins, games and websites on Facebook and elsewhere?" to "Off" if you don't want any apps getting your personal information.
"Instant personalization" means that Facebook can share your information with select third-party sites to give you a better experience when you visit. I've never seen that it does anything interesting,
ADS
"Third Party Sites" controls whether or not Facebook can share use your information in ads on third-party sites in the future. Click "Edit" and set "If we allow this in the future..." to "No one."
"Ads and Friends" sets whether or not your name can appear in ads that your friends see. Again, click "Edit" and change "Pair my social actions with ads for" to "No one."
Finally, under "Website and Mobile App Custom Audiences," You can click the "Opt out" link if you don't want Facebook showing you targeted ads.
That wraps up your privacy and security settings on Facebook. That is, until Facebook decides it has to change everything all over again.
Hackers and identity thieves are also watching.
If you think you already have settings set correctly, Facebook changes its settings and where they're located frequently so you should double-check regularly.
If you don't want people to find you easily, don't use the same username you use for other social media or as your email address.
Security
Go to Security tab by clicking the Security link in the left column.
turn on Login Notifications. This alerts you when someone logs in to your account from an unfamiliar gadget.
Login Approvals means you can only log in on a new computer or gadget if you have your phone with you to receive a special code. Even if a hacker gets your information, they'd need your phone as well to get in to your account. It's a little annoying at times, but the extra security is worth it.
Review your "Trusted Browsers." You might have logged in on a computer in the past - belonging to a friend or ex, for example - that you no longer want to have easy access.
Privacy
Privacy tab controls who can see what you post and who can contact and find you.
In "Who can contact me?" change "Who can send you friend requests?" to Friends of Friends. This keeps strangers from sending you friend invites you don't want. The exception is if you want old friends from school to be able to send you friend requests. You can also switch from Basic Filtering to Strict Filtering to weed out a lot of the messages you receive.
In the "Who can see my stuff?" menu, set "Who can see your future posts?" to Friends.
Under "Who can look me up?" you want to change the settings to "Friends," "Friends" and "No." This makes it much harder for strangers or stalkers to find you if they just have a phone number, email address or know your name. Keep in mind, this will also stop old friends from easily finding you.
Timeline and Tagging
In "Who can add things to my timeline?" you definitely want to limit who can post on your timeline to just "Friends." If you really want to make sure you control everything people see on your timeline, you can change that to "Only Me."
In "How can I manage tags people add and tagging suggestions?" you can set the settings to "On," "Only Me," and "No One." This keeps things you're tagged in, like photos, from automatically being visible to all your friends. It also keeps you from being tagged in photos you don't control, which can give away your face and name to people you don't know.
FOLLOWERS
Allow people who aren't your friends to see your posts in their News Feed. This is handy if you're an aspiring writer or artists. But for most people, you want to make sure "Who Can Follow Me" is set to "Friends."
Apps
They have a few settings that are serious privacy problems if they aren't changed.
A huge hidden privacy danger is "Apps others use." This controls what information about YOU apps your friends install can share with the app developer. Edit this and uncheck every box.
"Apps you use" allows you to control what apps are connected to your account. Click the X next to any apps you don't use to delete them. Or you can change "Use apps, plugins, games and websites on Facebook and elsewhere?" to "Off" if you don't want any apps getting your personal information.
"Instant personalization" means that Facebook can share your information with select third-party sites to give you a better experience when you visit. I've never seen that it does anything interesting,
ADS
"Third Party Sites" controls whether or not Facebook can share use your information in ads on third-party sites in the future. Click "Edit" and set "If we allow this in the future..." to "No one."
"Ads and Friends" sets whether or not your name can appear in ads that your friends see. Again, click "Edit" and change "Pair my social actions with ads for" to "No one."
Finally, under "Website and Mobile App Custom Audiences," You can click the "Opt out" link if you don't want Facebook showing you targeted ads.
That wraps up your privacy and security settings on Facebook. That is, until Facebook decides it has to change everything all over again.