Things to know
Facebook’s settings have proven to be quite fluid and within the last couple of year, they have altered some settings several times, adding, moving, even eliminating options. Currently it’s very possible to incorrectly navigate through all these functions.
Consequently, we’re here to explain how to harden your Facebook privacy.
Facebook’s settings tabs are filled with many alternatives.
We
will present our lesson in a similar way to how Facebook has arranged its
latest settings.
The Privacy tab
Who has visibility of my material?
This tab has three different alternative
settings.
1. Who has
visibility of my future posts?
No secret with this one: Utilise this setting to stipulate who will have
visibility of any of your new posts: your Facebook friends, friends of your
friends, all Internet users or a definite group of users.
Note – this choice does not alter access settings for your previous posts, only for new ones. If one wants to hide old posts, refer to point three.
You might also be interested to know that you do not have to access settings to locate this option — if you would like to create an option as to who can see a new post, use the button below the new post field, just a little to the left of the “Post button”.
2. Analyse all your posts
and others that you are tagged in.
If you click this link it takes you to your Activity Log. On liking a post,
leave a remark below a friend’s post, or tag someone in an image, that appears
on this page.
Review the Comments tab if you want to locate all your comments; the Likes tab encompasses all you ever “liked”; and it stands to reason tha Posts You’re Tagged In shows the posts in which you were tagged.
3. Control the users for
posts you’ve shared with “friends of friends” or “Public”
This allows you to hide older posts from “friends of your friends” or any Internet
users.
If you activate this setting, your friends will still be able to view your posts.
Be cautious though: If you would like to reverse this action in future, you will have to amend the audience of each separate post.
Remember, access rights can be altered for a specific post anytime. Select “Edit Post”, then click the button with access rights (left of the Save button) and select its audience from the drop-down list.
Who can contact me? — Here you can select who can send you friend requests: everyone or only friends of your friends.
Who can look me up? — Individuals can utilise Facebook to search for people by phone numbers and e-mail. Utilise this setting to permit or prevent the social network showing your account to others who try to locate you using this data.
This is where you can also hide your Facebook account from Google, Yahoo, and other search engines.
Timeline and Tagging
Who can add things to my
Timeline?
Who can post on your
Timeline?
Select who can post on your page – only you or your friends as well. The main
(and typically the only) reason for people to select this option is to wish
friends a happy birthday. But if some of your Facebook friends are strangers,
you should possibly limit access to your Timeline.
Review posts in which friends tag you prior to them appearing on your Timeline?
In this setting you can take charge over posts with tags. If you enable the feature, these posts will be added to the Timeline Review page automatically and will be notified in order to inspect them.
Remember that this choice lets you accept or hide tagged posts from your Timeline only. Tagged content will always be visible in Facebook search results, newsfeeds, and other areas within the social network.
Who has visibility of things on
my Timeline?
Evaluate what others see on your
Timeline.
Select this link to discover what your Timeline looks like to others— or to a particular
friend.
Who has visibility to
posts you have been tagged in on your Timeline?
You govern the content we publish. On occasion friends’ tag us in photos and
posts that should never go public. If you wish to appraise every tagged post
published by your friends prior to appearing on your Timeline, you can establish
privacy settings for all such posts at one time.
Select “Only me” or create a “Custom” list to hide specific tagged posts from
public. You are also able to manually un-tag any post or photo you do not like.
How can I oversee “tags people add” and “tagging
suggestions”?
Assess tags others add to your
own posts prior to the tags appearing on Facebook?
Often friends tag in others in your photos who are not portrayed there. Also,
tagging can entice interest of people who are not in your friend circle whom
you would prefer not have visibility of the post. This option allows you to
govern this situation.
On being “tagged” in a
post, who would you like to have visibility who does not already have it.
You can insert a post you’ve been tagged in to your Timeline or conceal it. However,
even if you hide it, the post will still be able to be seen on the post of its
creator, in the search results of your mutual friends, in the newsfeed and several
other places. If you do not want other to have visibility, choose “Only Me.”
Who has visibility of “tag
suggestions” when photos that look like you are posted?
Facebook utilises a proprietary “facial recognition system” to match photographs with
users. When portrait photos are uploaded, the social network will offer
suggestions — for simpler tagging. You can utilise the following setting to
stop Facebook from doing that to you.
Blocking
Here we have three useful settings.
Restricted List
This list is another way to separate
posts into “personal” and “public”. Friends added to this list will be unable
to view posts that your general friends’ audience are able to see. “Restricted”
friends will still be able to see what you share publicly or on a mutual
friend’s Timeline, and to the specific posts that they are tagged in. Facebook does
not let users know when they have been added to the restricted list.
Block Users
If your intention is to
completely break with a particular Facebook user, just “block” him or her. That
individual will not have visibility of your posts on your Timeline nor is able
to “tag you”, invite you to events or groups, start a conversation with you, or
add you as a friend.
Block Pages
It is also possible to block pages that have been posted by an online shop, newspaper, or the like.
However this break-up is mutual: The blocked Page will forever be unable to interact with your posts at all, and you will likewise not be able interact with that Page. If you liked the Page prior to blocking it will subsequently also unlike and unfollow it.
Public Posts
This page has several
interesting settings as well.
Who can follow me?
This is where you can permit others
who are not your friends to follow you. If they choose to follow you, your
public posts will be added to their newsfeeds.
“Public post comments”, “Public post notifications”, and “Public profile info”.
This is where you can govern who
is permitted to comment on your public posts, and choose if you would like to accept
a notification when users who are not on your friend list follow you, repost
your public posts, like or comment on.
Advertisements
Facebook collects and collates data concerning you: your likes and posts, the sites you join to your social media account, and more. The social network utilises this information to target ads to you and your friends. If you do not want this, forbid Facebook from utilising your data for advertising.
Recommended Privacy settings
Chrome on Desktop
A lot of privacy settings are enabled by default, but you select which you’d prefer.
To access the settings follow the steps below:
- On your desktop, open Chrome.
- Navigate to the top right of the browser and open Settings.
- Navigate down the page, select Advanced.
- From “Privacy and security,” select what settings you would like to turn off.
- To regulate how the browser controls content and permissions, Select Content settings.
- Clear browsing data will delete your password information as well as cookies and your history of searches.
Chrome for Apple and IoS platforms
Again many of the privacy settings are enabled by default, but you select which you’d prefer.
Recommended settings for iPhone & iPad
- From your iPhone or other Apple device, open the Chrome browser.
- Navigate to the bottom right of the page, select More Settings.
- Select Privacy.
- Select the feature you wish to change:
- In the “Other
Devices,” tab choose to have Handoff on
or off.
Handoff allows you to switch between Apple devices. - In the “Web Services,” tab select whether to allow the browser to offer suggestions or send usage and crash report statistics.
- In order to get rid of your browsing history, select Clear Browsing Data. Then choose the information you want to trash and choose Clear Browsing Data.
Google Chrome on Android devices
- From your Android phone or tablet, enable the Chrome browser.
- Navigate right of the address bar, select More Settings.
- In the “Advanced,” tab, select Privacy.
- Select what you would like to update.