How to Protect Your Privacy on Facebook

I’ve always had a tenuous relationship with Facebook. I’ve deleted my account three times now (double-tap, fully deleted), and if you ask me if I like Facebook on any given day, I’ll tell you “No,” without hesitation.

Why this hate of Facebook? Their ever-shifting security policies terrify me. But, despite my fear of the Facebook, I’ve opened a new account and am back to give it one more try.

Love it or hate it, Facebook has become ingrained in our culture. As a writer, it’s really hard to justify not being present on Facebook when you can meet so many potential readers and writing friends there. Not belonging to Facebook was starting to feel like not going to the best writing conferences: I was missing out.

When I decided to return to Facebook I spent an afternoon learning about their security policies and what I could do to keep my account safe. Below I’ve gathered a few of the resources that I found most useful (and most comforting) when it comes to protecting your privacy on Facebook. Read on to learn how to keep your Facebook account safe(r)!

4 Resources to Help You Learn How to Protect Your Privacy on Facebook:

1. How to Keep Safe on Facebook from wikiHow: 12 easy ways to keep your information safe on Facebook.

2. How to Keep Your Privacy Safe(r) on Facebook from PC World: My favourite part about this post if the sub-headline: “Your information can’t be made safe on Facebook, but you can make it safer.” This post was written in 2010, but most of the advice still holds true today.

3. Facebook Privacy: 10 Settings Every User Needs to Know from Mashable: An overview of the basics.

4. Security Tips from the Facebook Help Center: A few quick tips to keep your Facebook account safe from Facebook themselves.

Despite my misgivings, I think the benefits of participating in Facebook outweigh the risks (as long as you are careful and keep up with their security updates).

This marks the fourth and final post in my series about Fighting Spam online. You can view the previous posts using the links below. Thanks for reading!

Part 1 – Tips for Fighting Spam: General rules for keeping your online world safe.
Part 2 – How to Reduce Spam Comments on Your WordPress Blog
Part 3 – How to Keep Your Twitter Account Safe

What steps have you taken to protect your Facebook account? Does privacy on Facebook concern you? Do you share my fear of Facebook?