Protecting Yourself on Facebook With Privacy Settings - 2014 Edition

Facebook does not have the best reputation for keeping their users privacy in mind. Facebook has changed their privacy settings many times since the site first launched and they have a record of forgetting to inform their users of changes.


Here are 5 steps to managing your Facebook privacy settings.

Who Can See My Stuff?

The first item is to address you can see future posts. Click edit to change the visibility of your posts on Facebook. One thing to consider is that when posting with the Facebook app, or on Facebook.com, you can control this setting on each post.

By default your posts will be public. You probably want to change it to Friends or Custom.

In a later post I will talk more about lists, particularly the acquaintance list. A popular custom setting for future posts is to share with "friends" but not "acquaintances".

Later on, if you want to, you can come back to this privacy settings page and adjust your past posts settings as well. Every couple of months it is good to look at your posts.

Who Can Contact Me?

This setting controls how you would like to be contacted for new connections on Facebook. Click edit to change this setting.

The default will be everyone. The other option is only friends of friends. I prefer to leave it set to everyone and personally decide to accept each friend request.

Whose messages do I want filtered in my inbox?

I recommend leaving this setting at the default. You can make it more strict later but this has never bothered me.

Who Can Look Me Up?

This setting controls how you can be found on Facebook. Options include your email, your phone number and whether you profile can be found on search engines.

Who can look you up with your email?

This setting is everyone by default. As with "who can connect with you" your options are everyone, friends of friends, or friends. I chose everyone but if your email is personal and you want more control, select friends of friends.

Who can look you up with your phone number?

Just like with email, you can change this option to friends of friends, or friends. I keep it set to everyone but if your phone number is not shared and you want more control, select friends of friends.

Do you want to be found on search engines?

This is probably the most important of the 3 settings under "who can look you up?". If you are only using Facebook personally, and not for business at all, then uncheck this box.

Timeline and Tagging

This section controls who can add things to your timeline, who can see items on your timeline and how to manage tags.

Who can add things to my timeline?

The default here is friends. You probably want to keep it as friends so that your friends can share things with you. If you want to use Facebook purely to share your own status, then consider changing this to "only me".

Who can see things on my timeline?

This is where you control who can see posts that have tagged you and who can see what others post on your timeline. the defaults is friends of friends. You can customize this quite a bit, as much as your own posts. I leave it as friends of friends.

If you chose "only me" in the first item, who can add things to my timeline, then this will also be "only me".

How can I manage tags people add and tagging suggestions?

Another very useful feature is the control of who can tag you. When your friends post photos and updates they can tag you in them. Every now and then you may not want to have that. Say for example and old sorority party photo that you would like to forget.

Turning this feature on alerts you to the fact that you were tagged and allows you to choose to not be tagged. I leave this off as you will get alerted to the tag and can remove it later if you choose.

Blocking Users, Apps and Invites

Blocking allows you keep a restricted list and  to block users, app invites, event invites, and apps.

Initially you won't need to block anyone I hope. The most important block list to remember is the app invite list. You will quickly get tired of being invited to play candy crush saga.

Security Settings

Here is a sixth bonus tip. Take a look at the security settings tab at least once. There are some options here that may be important later. A big one is deactivate your account. This is where you would do that.

That is it for setting up your Facebook privacy settings. I hope this helps you understand the settings a little more. Facebook change the options often so I do recommend revisiting your settings once every few months.

Thanks again and don't forget to Be Mohr Social. Next you can learn to Understand Your Facebook Timeline.