10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

Everyday I accept an email from somebody about how their annual was hacked, how a acquaintance tagged them in the photo and they ambition a way to abstain it, as able-bodied as a amount of added complications accompanying to their aloofness on Facebook. Over the weekend one alone contacted me to let me apperceive that he would be removing me as a acquaintance from Facebook because he was “going to accomplish a about-face with my Facebook use - traveling to just mostly ancestors stuff.”

Perhaps he was annoyed of accepting my cachet updates or conceivably he didn’t ambition me to appearance photos from his claimed life. Whatever the acumen for catastrophe our Facebook friendship, I ample that abounding humans would account from a absolute overview on how to assure your aloofness on Facebook. Beneath is a footfall by footfall activity for attention your privacy.

1. Use Your Acquaintance Lists

-Friend Lists Icon-I can’t acquaint you how abounding humans are not acquainted of their acquaintance lists. For those not acquainted of what acquaintance lists are, Facebook describes them as a affection which allows “you to actualize clandestine groupings of accompany based on your claimed preferences. For example, you can actualize a Acquaintance Account for your accompany that accommodated for account book club meetings. You can actualize Acquaintance Lists for all of your authoritative needs, acceptance you to bound appearance accompany by blazon and forward letters to your lists.”

There are a few actual important things to bethink about acquaintance lists:

* You can add anniversary acquaintance to added than one acquaintance group

* Acquaintance groups should be acclimated like “tags” as acclimated abroad about the web

* Acquaintance Lists can accept specific aloofness behavior activated to them

I’ll blow on anniversary of the things listed aloft in added detail later. A archetypal bureaucracy for groups would be “Friends”, “Family”, and “Professional”. These three groups can again be acclimated to administer altered aloofness policies. For example, you may ambition your accompany to see photos from the affair you were at endure night, but you don’t ambition your ancestors or able contacts to see those photos.

Using acquaintance lists is aswell acutely advantageous for acclimation your accompany if you accept a lot of them. For instance I accept about 20 acquaintance lists and I assort humans by city-limits (New York, San Francisco, D.C., Tel Aviv, etc), breadth I met them (conferences, accomplished co-workers, through this blog), and my accord with them (professional, family, social, etc).

You can configure your acquaintance lists by visiting the accompany breadth of your Facebook.

2. Abolish Yourself From Facebook Seek Results

-Facebook Seek Advertisement Screenshot-

My mom is a abecedary and one of the aboriginal things she asked me if she abutting Facebook is how she could accomplish abiding her acceptance couldn’t see that she was on the site. Understandably my mom doesn’t ambition her average academy acceptance to apperceive what she’s up to in her claimed life. There are abundant affidavit that individuals don’t ambition their advice to appearance up in seek after-effects on Facebook, and it’s simple to about-face off your accessible visibility.

How to Abolish Yourself From Facebook Seek Results

Now that you’ve absitively that you would like to abolish yourself from Facebook’s seek results, here’s how to do it:

1. Appointment your seek aloofness settings page

2. Beneath “Search Visibility” baddest “Only Friends” (Remember, accomplishing so will abolish you from Facebook seek results, so accomplish abiding you ambition to be removed totally. Otherwise, you can baddest accession group, such as “My Networks and Friends” which I accept is the default.)

3. Bang “Save Changes”

By default, Facebook makes your attendance arresting to the arrangement you are in. Frequently, humans aren’t acquainted of their visibility, so this is one of the aboriginal settings that users ambition to modify. By selecting “Customize” from the seek afterimage bead down you can accomplish your settings even added granular.

-Facebook Seek Afterimage Screenshot-

3. Abolish Yourself From Google

-Public Seek Advertisement Screenshot-

Facebook gets A TON of cartage from announcement user profiles in seek engines. Not all of your contour is displayed though. Currently the advice displayed in the seek contour is bound to: your contour picture, a account of your friends, a hotlink to add you as a friend, a hotlink to forward you a message, and a account of up to about 20 fan pages that you are a affiliate of.

For some people, accepting displayed in the seek engines is a abundant way to let humans get in acquaintance with you, abnormally if you don’t accept an absolute website. Facebook aswell tends to rank top in the seek results, so if you ambition to be simple to find, authoritative your seek contour can be a abundant idea. Abounding humans don’t ambition any of their advice to be accessible though.

By visiting the aforementioned seek aloofness settings page listed in the antecedent step, you can ascendancy the afterimage of your accessible seek advertisement which is arresting to Google and added seek engines. You can about-face off your accessible seek advertisement by artlessly unchecking the box next to the byword “Create a accessible seek advertisement for me and abide it for seek engine indexing” as pictured in the angel below.

-Facebook Accessible Seek Attenuate Screenshot-

4. Abstain the Abominable Photo/Video Tag Mistake

-Drunk Tagged Facebook Photo-

This is the archetypal Facebook problem. You let apart for a few hours one night (or day) and photos (or videos) of the moment are al of a sudden acquaint for all to view, not just your abutting accompany who aggregate the moment with you. The aftereffect can be devastating. Some accept been accursed from plan afterwards incriminating photos/videos were acquaint for the bang-up to see. For others, about tagged photos/videos accept concluded relationships.

At the least, a tagged photo/video can aftereffect in claimed embarrassment. So how do you anticipate the abominable tagged photo or video from assuming up in all of your accompany account feeds? It’s appealing simple. Aboriginal appointment your contour aloofness page and adapt the ambience next to “Photos Tagged of You”. Baddest the advantage which says “Customize…” and a box like the one pictured beneath will pop up.

Select the advantage “Only Me” and again “None of My Networks” if you would like to accumulate all tagged photos private. If you’d like to accomplish tagged photos arresting to assertive users you can accept to add them in the box beneath the “Some Friends” option. In the box that displays afterwards you baddest “Some Friends” you can blazon either alone accompany or acquaintance lists.

-Facebook Tagged Photo Aloofness Settings Screenshot-

5. Assure Your Albums

-Facebook Photos Contour Screenshot-Just because you’ve uploaded photos doesn’t beggarly that you’ve accurately tagged every photo correctly. This ambience is added of a admonition than annihilation else. Frequently humans will about-face of their tagged photo afterimage to assertive acquaintance lists yet accumulate their photo albums accessible to the world. If you are aggravating to accomplish all your photos airy you accept to do so on an anthology by anthology basis.

There is a specific Photos Aloofness page from which you can manually configure the afterimage of anniversary anthology (as pictured below). This is an acutely advantageous agreement advantage and I awful acclaim that you yield advantage of it. This way you can abundance your photos indefinitely on Facebook yet ensure that the alone humans that can appearance your photos are the ones who you absolutely ambition to see them.

-Facebook Photos Aloofness Screenshot-

6. Anticipate Belief From Assuming Up in Your Friends’ Account Feeds

-Relationship Cachet Notification Change Advantage Screenshot-

Oh, did you absolutely just breach up with your girlfriend? I’m apologetic to apprehend that. I’m abiding all of your accompany and business contacts are aswell apologetic to apprehend that. I can’t acquaint you how abounding awkward accord cachet changes I’ve seen. The a lot of approved one I’ve apparent afresh is if an adorable changeable ends their accord and abundant guys hop on the befalling to animate her.

I’ve aswell apparent the end of marriages, as able-bodied as account accord cachet changes as individuals try to actuate breadth their accord stands with their cogent other. My claimed activity is to not affectation a accord status, but abounding like to accomplish a accessible account out of their relationship. For those individuals, it can be a acute move to barrier adjoin approaching disasters.

There are a amount of means to ascendancy how your accord cachet is displayed. The aboriginal affair that a lot of humans should do is uncheck the box next to “Remove Accord Status” in the Account Augment and Bank Aloofness page. In the attenuate instance that a accord does uncomfortably end, you can abstain authoritative things added afflictive by alienated a acquaintance notification about it.

Second, your accord cachet avalanche aural your “Basic Information” breadth of your profile. You can ascendancy who can see your basal advice next to the “Basic Information” ambience on the Contour Aloofness page. Accumulate in apperception that added accordant contour advice like your gender, bearing date, networks, and added settings are arresting aural your basal advice section.

Making your basal advice absolutely airy to accompany apparently isn’t a acceptable idea, but removing the account augment belief about accord changes a lot of acceptable is.

7. Assure Adjoin Appear Appliance Stories

-Have Sex! Notification Screenshot-

This one is a little added catchy to administer but I’ll explain the affair at hand. Frequently if you add an application, a account augment account is anon appear to your profile. One way to get instantly ashamed is to appointment the “Have Sex!” appliance (found here). This appliance has no purpose besides cogent your accompany that you are absorbed in accepting sex with them. After demography any action, the appliance will column a account augment adventure to your contour which says the agnate of “Nick just appear to the apple that he is accepting sex!”

This is absolutely something that none of your able contacts if any of your contacts are absorbed in seeing (honestly I’m a bit abashed about that application, but that’s a altered story). That’s why it’s important to adviser what takes abode afterwards you install an appliance on Facebook. Already you install an appliance you should appointment your contour to ensure that no awkward notification has been acquaint to your profile.

More about again not, annihilation will be acquaint but there are abounding applications on the belvedere abominably that broadcast belief after you alive it. There are two means to abstain accepting this happen: don’t appointment applications or browse your contour every time that you do. Ultimately you shouldn’t be anxious about applications that you’ve congenital a trusted accord with but any new applications could potentially column awkward notifications.

8. Accomplish Your Acquaintance Advice Private

I alone use Facebook for able and claimed use and it can frequently become overwhelming. That’s why I’ve taken the time to outline these ten aloofness aegis steps. One of the aboriginal things I did if I started acknowledging acquaintance requests from humans that I hadn’t congenital a able accord with, was accomplish my acquaintance advice arresting alone to abutting contacts.

The acquaintance advice is my claimed email and buzz number. It’s a simple affair to set but abounding humans overlook to do it. Frequently humans we don’t apperceive end up contacting us and we accept no abstraction how they got our acquaintance information. Your acquaintance aloofness can be edited appropriate from your profile. If you accept called to admission this information, you should see a “Contact Information” breadth beneath the “Info” tab in your profile.

If it displays, you artlessly bang “Edit” and again a awning like the one pictured beneath will appearance up.

-Profile Acquaintance Edit Form Screenshot-

For anniversary acquaintance account that you accept in your contour you should set custom aloofness settings (as pictured below) so that contacts that you aren’t abutting to don’t accept admission to your buzz amount and/or email. It’s a baby change but it can save you the altercation of accepting pestered by humans you don’t apperceive well. Also, attention your aloofness is about a acceptable convenance to get in the addiction of doing.

As a ancillary note, this is a abundant breadth to yield advantage of acquaintance lists. By accepting in the addiction of alignment your friends, you can ensure that you are abyssal Facebook cautiously through aloofness settings that are absorbed to your acquaintance lists.

-Facebook Acquaintance Aloofness Settings Screenshot-

9. Abstain Awkward Bank Posts

Just because you use Facebook for business doesn’t beggarly your accompany do. That’s why already in a while a acquaintance of castigation will appear column something awkward or not necessarily “work friendly” and it can end up accepting adverse effects. That’s why Facebook has provided you with the adeptness to adapt your bank postings visibility. You can aswell ascendancy which accompany can column on your wall. There are two places you can ascendancy these things.

Adjust Bank Announcement Visibility

-Facebook Bank Adventure Settings Screenshot-

Within your contour page you can ascendancy who can appearance bank postings fabricated by your friends. To do so, bang on the “Settings” figure on the bank in your contour page. Next, acquisition the box pictured in the angel aloft and acclimatize the ambience which says “Who can see posts fabricated by friends?” I’d advance application a action agnate to the one categorical in the antecedent footfall apropos acquaintance information.

Control Who Can Column to Your Wall

In accession to authoritative who can appearance bank postings appear by your friends, you aswell ambition to ascendancy which accompany can column on your wall. Not everybody needs to do this, but occasionally you artlessly ambition to anticipate some humans from announcement on your page. If you appointment the Contour Aloofness settings page, there is a breadth labeled “Wall Posts”.

From this breadth you can absolutely attenuate your friends’ adeptness to column on your wall. You can aswell baddest specific acquaintance lists that can column on your wall. Personally, I don’t absolutely affliction who can column on my bank but I can accept the charge to ascendancy who can see those bank postings. If you ambition to absolute who can column bank posts on your profile, this is breadth you can do it.

10. Accumulate Your Friendships Private

While it’s fun to appearance off that you accept hundreds or bags of accompany on Facebook, some of your accompany don’t ambition to reside accessible lives. That’s why it’s about a acceptable activity to about-face off your friends’ afterimage to others. I’ve had a amount of individuals appointment my contour and again selectively aces off accompany that are accordant to them for business purposes, or added reasons.

Whatever the acumen they are accomplishing it, just apperceive that they are … it’s allotment of what makes Facebook so addictive: the voyeuristic nature. Also, your accompany are frequently arresting to the accessible through seek engines and advertisement this advice can ultimately present a aegis risk. To adapt the afterimage of your friends, appointment the Contour Aloofness page.

Navigate down to the ambience which says “Friends” and again adapt the ambience to whatever is appropriate for you.

-Custom Acquaintance Afterimage Settings Screenshot-

Conclusion

These are just ten means that you can assure your aloofness on Facebook. While there are a few added baby things to accumulate in mind, these ten settings are a lot of important. Accumulate in apperception that while you may accept angry off the afterimage of abounding contour sections, there is no way to anticipate all photos or videos from accepting arresting if accompany of castigation accomplish the images visible.

The best way to anticipate awkward items from assuming up on Facebook in the approaching is to not accomplish bad judgements in your claimed life. We’re all animal admitting and accepting absolutely batty about every best you accomplish is apparently not the best way to reside your life. Be acquainted of what aloofness settings are accessible and be acquainted of what your accompany may be publishing about you.

While you may not ambition to configure all of the aloofness settings outlined, artlessly alive how to do so is a abundant footfall in the appropriate direction. By afterward the 10 settings listed aloft you are able-bodied on your way to an embarrassment chargeless approaching on Facebook!