As Facebook Data-breach and security issues are being questioned every day, so we also need to be cautious about our privacy and data being misused. The ‘malicious actors’ are always keen to track your activities on social networking sites(Millions of user’s data on Facebook had been collected illegally and misused). No one wants their privacy to be ruined.

Today, social networking sites have become a medium to share our thoughts, memories and stay connected to our family and friends. Some there are thousands of third-party apps and services integrated with them that tracks our data like name, location, birthday, personal photos and contacts. You may not know that these data are being used for malicious purposes without your permission. Also, there are people who we don’t know and are just our Facebook friends. Such friends could take advantage and collect your data. So we should be always careful while choosing whom we want to be friends.

So, here is a guide to help to stay safe on Facebook. Please read the article carefully and take
time to re-check your security and privacy settings on Facebook.

1. Knowing about your privacy settings and configuring it correctly: It is very important to understand the privacy settings and make changes to it as when needed. Also, Facebook keeps changing and adding new security features, so be updates with it.
   To manage your privacy settings:
   Click on the arrow next to the question mark at the top of your Facebook page. Next click on “Settings” and then navigate to the left sidebar menu and click on “Privacy settings”.

It will open “Privacy Settings and Tools” window. Here you can change and configure privacy settings.

1. 1. • You can configure settings like:
      • Who can see your future post, tag you and share your posts,(it is better to choose only friends).
      • Who can send you friend request,
      • Who can see your friend list
      • How people can search you(through email, phone number).
2. Timeline and Tagging: It is very important to restricts peoples to see your timeline and they contains various information related to your recent visits, photos, events and birthdays. Here is the screenshot to choose the best ones for this setting.
3. Blocking and Restricting users: Facebook allows users to restrict persons, apps, pages and invites by blocking them on their account. So, if you are not sure about any person on Facebook or you find them fake, annoying or misleading your information, then you can block them. So they won’t be able see your posts or send you any invites.
4. Limit your apps and websites: We often use our Facebook account for connecting to various third-party apps, services and websites. But, you should know that these apps have the permission to see your profile, collect important data like your location, photos, birthdays and so on. So, you can give a check on the “Apps and Websites” setting to edit or remove the apps and websites you are no longer using them. This will prevent unnecessary sharing of your private data to third-party owners.
5. Do not overshare your photos, locations you check-in and restrict whom to share with: We should be very careful while sharing our stuffs, like you can allow “friends” or “friends of friends” to see and share your posts. And if you like to share some posts to only few of close ones, then Facebook will display the friend list and you can choose from them at the time of sharing or if something private which you just want to keep on your timeline but don’t want to share to anyone then you can use “Only Me”. Avoid keeping your posts public until its some public information or any news. Most important thing- avoid sharing exact location of your place, friend’s place or any other family members while checking in.

 

So, here are some privacy tips which you can use to keep your Facebook account safe. Privacy should be our main concern when we are online. Also it is always recommended to keep an updated Anti-virus program on your computer, so that if any malicious program could attack from the background, it can be quickly traced.
If haven’t one still then quickly download it from the below link.