Nobody wants to be a victim of identity theft, although anybody who has a Facebook account, and hasn't adjusted their security settings could be at real risk of this due to a number of methods identity thieves use, to enable them to see your personal settings.
However, there is no need to cancel your Facebook account yet. Here are 5 tips which will take you minutes and will make your account a lot more secure.
Enable HTTPS
Enable HTTPS is one of the latest additions to Facebook, although it is not a default setting. You can adjust your privacy settings all you want, but if you are viewing Facebook over an unencrypted connection, then all your information, including your passwords could be viewed by someone else. Especially since FireSheep was released.
To change this setting go to Account > Account Settings and look for the Account Security section, and make sure the 'Secure browsing' box is ticked.
Disable Public Search
Another setting that is important when maintaining your security, is the 'public search' listings. This is the setting which sets your visibility on search engines such as Google etc. Unless you have a really good reason to be discovered, then this option should always be disabled, to help prevent people finding out enough about you from your profile, to then access other accounts you may have online.
To change this setting go to Account > Privacy Settings > APPS and Websites >Public Search > Edit Settings. You want the box saying 'Enable Public Search' unticked to prevent your profile appearing on Google to anyone who searches for your name.
Disable Facebook Search
For the same reason that you should disable public search engine listings, you may also want to come off Facebook's internal search as well
You can disable this by going to Account > Privacy Settings > Connecting on Facebook > View Settings and then change the setting on 'Find me on Facebook ' to 'Friends only', or if you want to have some visibility to 'Friends of friends'
Control Your Apps
Remember all those apps and games you signed up for where you are a zombie or a farmer, or where you do a test to see which character from The Flintstones you are most like. Even if you used this app years ago and haven't been near it since, it will still be able to access reams of your personal data.
To ensure that this doesn't happen you can simply switch off all apps. You do this in Accounts> Privacy Settings > Apps and Websites > Edit Your Settings. Then you want to make sure the Turn OFF all apps button is pressed, thus blocking all the apps from using your personal data. You can also go through a list of apps carefully and allow ones that you do trust and use regularly as well, if turning off all apps seems a little extreme for you.
Remove Personal Information
You should not have any personal information visible to anyone, except those that you trust implicitly. People can use this to guess passwords, or answer security questions on 'Forgotten Password' forms to gain access to email or internet banking sites.
You have to go to Account >Privacy Settings> Sharing on Facebook and change what people can see on your profile to combat these identity thieves. Even though you may like all the birthday greetings you get, it is not a good idea to let anyone see your birthday.
If you follow all these steps then you should be as safe as it is possible to be on Facebook without actually removing yourself fully from the site.
Author - Owen Griff - For more on this subject please see http://5ways2.com/5-ways-to-secure-your-facebook-account/
For more hints and tips on a variety of subjects check out http://5ways2.com/
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