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About this write-up: This is the third and concluding part of the three part series dealing with security related issues faced when using popular social networking sites. This write-up deals with some of the settings and describes how and when these settings should be activated. While the suggested changes in the security settings may not guarantee that your personal information is not divulged to the unknown persons, it however, would act as a simple barrier to unwanted prying eyes.
Background The previous two write ups briefly highlighted how social networking sites are a boon as well as a bane. Boon because they help you to reach out to your friends, contacts, etc. They also help you connect with like-minded people. However, what most people don’t realise is that, you may be parting with a lot of personal information, more than you bargained for and as a matter of fact, more that you even know or comprehend. It is a known fact that unscrupulous people can use this information for their own gains. It is a known fact, notwithstanding this, whenever disaster strikes, the people who are affected, more often than not, realise that they were sitting ducks.
Need for privacy Social media sites, as we all know, permit us to meet /connect with other people on the net. Initially, we start off with close friends and relatives, whom we look up on facebook almost as soon as we open an account. It’s quite likely that they may have asked, you are you on Facebook?? Why aren’t you on Facebook??? You know….. giving you the feeling that everybody had boarded the bus to paradise and you were the only person left behind. So first of all you connect to them. Also you put in all the small–small personal details about yourself such as which school/college/ university, date of birth, locality where you stay/work, your chosen profession, likes & dislikes (yes that too), etc. All this information is careful and meticulously ‘harvested’ in humongous databases (read my write up on Big Data).
The next step in the process of ‘networking” is to ‘connect’ with like-minded people on Facebook. Suddenly, you will start getting prompts, suggesting that such and such person has a similar trait and therefore you may connect. What you don’t know is when you started punching in personal information, an intelligent algorithm was working behind the scene and putting all the pieces together. If not that, it was creating a ‘footprint’ for others to ‘find’ you.
While this seems convenient and intuitive to you, what most people don’t realise is that this very information can be used to ‘target’ you for something nefarious. It is in your interest that you don’t expose yourself to such risks. In order to do that you need to review your privacy settings and tweak them in a manner that permits you to connect with ease, but the same is protecting you from the villains lurking in the shadow.
Privacy settings
Activating or deactivating privacy settings can also be described as drawing a line (something like the proverbial Laxman rekha one might say), a line beyond which you want to keep intruders out. Conversely, one may say that you draw the line also to create a boundary beyond which your personal stuff doesn’t go. Mind you, just like in what has been said in Indian mythology, the villans will try every trick in the book to lure you, it is for you to realise what’s in your own interest.
Very briefly, the security setting (on Facebook) can be used to:
• Manage how you connect with others
• Select the audience with whom you want to share your personal stuff, and
• Manage how others connect with you (mainly photo tagging)
STEP 1: Manage how you connect with people
In order for you to manage, you first need to know:
• Where to find your privacy settings (a bit obvious, I know, but just in case you didn’t know) • Privacy shortcuts
• Controlling who can send you friend requests
• Changing the filter preferences for your messages
• Who can see your profile pictures (reminded me of a scene from Shah Rukh Khan Juhi Chawla starrer….where apro SRK says KKKKKKiran….)
So, first things first:
Where are my privacy settings?
To view and adjust your privacy settings:
1. Click in the upper-right corner of any Facebook page
2. Select Privacy Settings from the dropdown menu
3. Click on a setting (ex: Who can see your future posts?) to edit it, or use the left column to view your other settings
What are my privacy shortcuts?
Your privacy shortcuts give you quick access to some of the most widely used privacy settings and tools. Click at the top right of any Facebook page to see shortcuts that help you manage:
• Who can see my stuff?
• Who can contact me?
• How do I stop someone from bothering me?
This is also where you’ll find the latest privacy updates and other helpful tools. The shortcuts you find here may change over time to reflect the settings and tools that are most relevant.
Controlling who can send you friend requests
By default, anyone on Facebook can send you a friend request. If you’d like to change who can send you friend requests:
1. Click at the top of the page.
2. Click Who can contact me?
3. Choose an option from the dropdown menu below Who can send me friend requests?
Changing the filter preferences for your messages
You can change your filter preferences right from your inbox:
1. Go to your Other Inbox
2. Click Edit Preferences
3. Select Basic or Strict filtering
4. Click Save
Messages that are filtered out of your inbox will appear in your Other folder. If a message you’re not interested in gets delivered to your inbox, select Move to Other from the Actions menu. Keep in mind, anyone on Facebook can send you a message, and anyone can email you at your Facebook email address.
Who can see your profile pictures
When you add a new profile picture, here’s what happens:
• The photo is added to your timeline and appears in your Profile Pictures album.
• A thumbnail version of the photo is made and appears next to your name around Facebook. This helps friends identify your posts and comments on Facebook.
• Your current profile picture is public. You can change who can see likes or comments on the photo.
Step 2: Select the audience with whom you want to share your personal stuff
This includes:
• When I share something, how do I choose who can see it?
• How can I use lists to share to a specific group of people?
• Can I change the audience for something I share after I share it?
• How do I control who can see what’s on my timeline?
• What is my activity log?
When I share something, how do I choose who can see it?
You’ll find an audience selector tool most places you share status updates, photos and other stuff. Just click the tool and select who you want to share something with.
The tool remembers the audience you shared with the last time you posted something, and uses the same audience when you share again unless you change it. For example, if you choose Public for a post, your next post will also be Public unless you change the audience when you post. This one tool appears in multiple places, such as your privacy shortcuts and privacy settings. When you make a change to the audience selector tool in one place, the change up-dates the tool everywhere it appears.
The audience selector also appears alongside things you’ve already shared, so it’s clear who can see each post. If you want to change the audience of a post after you’ve shared it, just click the audience selector and select a new audience.
Bear in mind, when you post to another person’s timeline, that person controls what audience can view the post. Also that, anyone who gets tagged in a post may see it, along with their friends.
How can I use lists to share to a specific group of people?
Lists give you an optional way to share with a specific audience. When writing a post or sharing a photo or other content, use the audience selector to pick the list you want to share it with.
Can I change the audience for something I share after I share it?
Yes, you can use the audience selector to change who can see stuff you share on your timeline after you share it. Keep in mind, when you share some-thing on someone else’s timeline, they control the audience for the post.
How do I control who can see what’s on my timeline?
• You can share basic information like your home-town or birthday when you edit your timeline. Click Update Info (under your cover photo) and then click the Edit button next to the box you want to edit. Use the audience selector next to each piece of information to choose who can see that info.
• Anyone can see your public information, which includes your name, profile picture, cover photo, gender, username, user ID (account number), and networks.
• Only you and your friends can post to your timeline. When you post something, you can control who sees it by using the audience selector. When other people post on your timeline, you can control who sees it by choosing the audience of the Who can see what others post on your timeline setting.
• As you edit your info, you can control who sees what by using the audience selector.
• Before photos, posts and app activities that you’re tagged in appear on your timeline, you can approve or dismiss them by turning on timeline review. Keep in mind, you can still be tagged, and the tagged content (ex: photo, post) is shared with the audience the person who posted it selected other places on Facebook (ex: News Feed and search).
• Set an audience for who can see posts you’ve been tagged in on your timeline.
• To see what your timeline looks like to other people, use the View As tool.
What is my activity log?
Your activity log is a tool that lets you review and manage what you share on Facebook. Only you can see your activity log.
Step 3: Manage how others connect with you— mainly photo tagging
This includes
• How do I remove a tag from a photo or post I’m tagged in?
• What is timeline review? How do I turn timeline review on?
• How do I review tags that people add to my posts before they appear?
• How do I control who sees posts and photos that I’m tagged in on my timeline?
• How can I turn off tag suggestions for photos of me?
How do I remove a tag from a photo or post I’m tagged in?
Hover over the story, click and select Report/Remove Tag from the dropdown menu. You can then choose to remove the tag or ask the person who posted it to take it down.
You can also remove tags from multiple photos at once,
1. Go to your activity log
2. Click Photos in the left-hand column
3. Select the photos you’d like to remove a tag from
4. Click Report/Remove Tags at the top of the page
5. Click Untag Photos to confirm
Remember, when you remove a tag, that tag will no longer appear on the post or photo, but that post or photo is still visible to the audience it’s shared with other places on Facebook, such as in News Feed and search.
What is timeline review? How do I turn timeline review on?
Posts you’re tagged in can appear in News Feed, search and other places on Facebook. Timeline review is part of your activity log and lets you choose whether these posts also appear on your timeline.
When people you’re not friends with tag you in a post, they automatically go to timeline review. If you would also like to review tags by friends, you can turn on timeline review for tags from anyone:
1. Click at the top right of any Facebook page and select Account Settings
2. In the left-hand column, click Timeline and Tagging
3. Look for the setting Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your timeline? and click Edit to the far right
4. Select Enabled from the dropdown menu
How do I review tags that people add to my posts before they appear?
Tag review is an option that lets you approve or dismiss tags that people add to your posts. When you turn it on, then anytime someone tags a photo or post you made, that tag won’t appear until you approve it. To turn on tag review:
1. Click at the top right of any Facebook page and select Account Settings
2. In the left-hand column, click Timeline and Tagging
3. Look for the setting Review tags friends add to your own posts on Facebook? and click Edit to the far right
4. Select Enabled from the dropdown menu
When tag review is on, you’ll get a notification when you have a post to review. You can approve or ig-nore the tag request by going to the content itself.
Its important to highlight that when you approve a tag, the person tagged and their friends may see your post. If you don’t want your post to be visible to the friends of the person tagged, you can adjust this setting. Simply click on the audience selector next to the story, select Custom, and uncheck the Friends of those tagged and event guests box.
How do I control who sees posts and photos that I’m tagged in on my timeline?
To choose who can see posts you’ve been tagged in after they appear on your timeline:
1. Click at the top right of any Facebook page and select Account Settings
2. In the left-hand column, click Timeline and Tagging
3. Look for the setting Who can see posts you’ve been tagged in on your timeline? and click Edit to the far right
4. Choose an audience from the dropdown menu
You can review photos and posts you’re tagged in before they appear on your timeline by turning on timeline review. Keep in mind, photos and posts you hide from your timeline are visible to the audience they’re shared with other places on Facebook, such as in News Feed and search.
How can I turn off tag suggestions for photos of me?
To choose who sees suggestions to tag you in photos:
1. Click at the top right of any Facebook page and choose Account Settings
2. Click Timeline and Tagging from the left-hand column
3. Under the How can I manage tags people add and tagging suggestions? section, click Who sees tag suggestions when photos that look like you are uploaded?
4. Select your preference from the dropdown menu
When you turn off tag suggestions, Facebook won’t suggest that people tag you when photos look like you. The template that we created to enable the tag suggestions feature will also be deleted. Note that friends will still be able to tag photos of you.
Well, these were the basics.
If you want to learn more either visit http://www. facebook.com/help/privacy alternatively, you can do a google search and you will find several useful links to help you on this issue (not only for facebook).
Disclaimer: The purpose of this write up is to spread awareness, promote ethical and safe computing practices and share knowledge. This write up does not seek to discredit or malign any particular person, corporation or business in any manner what so ever.
