I was reading an article this morning about one of Apple’s founders, Steve Wozniak, and his crusade against Facebook. Wozniak was quoted as saying that you should move away from Facebook because “there is no way to stop companies on your habits.” Unfortunately, he is right, however, I am not sure that the social media giant is known as Facebook. It is absolutely necessary. After much discussion with some of my colleagues this morning, I have come to the conclusion that if you have an affinity for Facebook, but your privacy is also valued, there are some things you need to know so that you can make educated decisions. going forward.
I have been a member of Facebook for over 11 years. After being “socially active” for so long, you would think that there would be no hiding from the “algorithm” that gathers one’s personal online habits. The bottom line is … you can’t … but there are some things you should know that can help.
• Tip # 1: Never post anything on Facebook thinking that it will be private. I have this saying … “Do not put anything on the Internet that you would not like to know publicly.” Obviously, this is a pretty broad generalization, but I think you get my meaning. If you’re worried about the bad guys, don’t post them on your grandfather’s pictures, by your own will, by all means. If you are going on vacation, do not announce it on Facebook. This lets criminals know when you will come home. If you are out of town on vacation (or whatever), post the return until you post pics. If you do, you just let the bad guys know that you’re not home and you’re probably not coming back for a long time. Also, do not post your physical address or phone number.
• Tip # 2: When you have made an online purchase, clear your cash. A “feature” in most Internet browsers today (Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, etc.) is to collect some data to help speed things up while you are surfing the Internet. They also collect something called “cookies”, which for the most part contain just a little information, remember what you saw when you were on a specific website. Facebook does something called “data-mining” where they store those bits of information (sometimes referred to as “browser history”) and then target you to advertisements on your Facebook page. Here’s an example … You go to Google and do a search. For “Car Vacuum Cleaner Review”. After looking at many websites related to car vacuum, you open Facebook and are surprised! These are all advertisements for car vacuum cleaners which are a “great bargain”. For the next several weeks, you continue to be bombarded by car vacuum cleaner advertisements. This is a minor inconvenience, but you can clear all this information cached from your browser and help prevent this from happening. Here is a great article about how to clear your browser cache:
• Tip # 3: Enable all available security measures. Believe it or not, Facebook actually has some very deep security measures built into the platform. Enable as many of them as you feel comfortable with. For example, you can set an option in Facebook that will alert you when you log into your account from an unknown device (ie computer, smartphone or tablet). It will also tell you with a certain degree of accuracy where the device is geographically located. If you get a message from Facebook that someone logs into your account from Korea or Uzbekistan, you can feel very confident that you did not have it. You will receive an email stating the fact and you will have the option to ignore it or tell Facebook that it was not with you and they will immediately boot the criminal from your account. There is also something called “two-factor authentication”. If you log into your account from an unfamiliar device, they can send a code to your smartphone via text message and then you have to enter that code on Facebook before logging in. You only have to do this once and then remember it. Your browser but as long as you have your phone to get the code, you are the only one who can see it.
• Tip # 4: Set your visibility to “Friends” and not “Public”. Unless you have an online business or manage a fan page, there is no need to tell the world what is going on in your life. If you trust your Facebook friends, as far as your information goes. If someone is trying to find you, just let them know on your online profile so that they can identify you positively. The more public your information, the more opportunity you have for someone to collect some data and find out how to break into your account. For example, if you make your date of the birth public (month/day but no year), and the year in which you graduated from high school, then you know this, We are the best site to buy youtube views instant delivery.
