Staying Safe on Facebook

Internet safety is a pretty broad topic that requires a lot of attention to fully address, and too difficult to even skim the surface on in one blog entry, so I will address one specific issue that many teenagers face; facebook privacy. I was inspired by a New York Times article that outlined these steps:

1) Make Friend Lists: This allows you to separate groups of people that you may want to with-hold information from (for instance, a "work" group could all be set on limited profile).

2) Who Can See Your Profile: This is quite similar to the above, however this allows exceptions, so when someone requests your friendship you can put them in a group AND decide whether or not they have a greater or fewer number of priviledges

3) Who Can See Your Address and Phone Number: (I believe this may be the most vital of all) Again under the privacy settings on the homepage, one can handpick who may or may not see this information, if any at all. While it did not say this in the article, I do not really believe either of these things should be listed on facebook at all, open to ANY user, especially address. most of the other things (such as pictures) people can see might be reputation damaging, or too personal, but publishing one's address can potentially lead to a breach to their safety.

4) Change Who Can Find You on Facebook Via Search: This is one of the most helpful tools on facebook, and I didn't even know it existed! Under privacy settings, you can go to "search" and actually filter WHO can find you on facbeook (friends of friends, people in your network, JUST your friends, if you don't want anyone to find you, etc). This is such a useful tool, not just for safety purposes, but also to keep prevent certain groups of people from friending you, that you may not want to connect with, or have access to your facebook.

5) Stop Sharing Personal Info With Unknown Applications: For some, this may be a "duh", but making things like PERSONAL quizzes, and giving application owners access to this information, while also exposing potentially unsafe details about your life. I think its just generally a good rule of thumb to be extrodinarily cautious about what you put up on facebook at all, one fullproof way to keep people from knowing things about you that you don't want them to know, is simply just not to put that information up!

In conclusion, these are important concepts to consider, and we can all learn from them.