Face Book removed the setting that keeps you unsearchable by name

Facebook has been very important part of our life. Popularity of this social network is increasing. More people around the world are using Facebook than any other social network.  It is one of the best social networks to communicate and socialize with families and friends.  Currently, privacy concern with this social network is increasing.

Last Thursday, Facebook announced that it is removing a private setting that allows users to hide their profile information from strangers. This setting is used by the users to decide whether they want other people to search them by name or not.  Now, Facebook eliminate this setting. Anyone can search you even if you don’t want to be found. The only option you have right now is to block the person. Otherwise any one can search you by typing your name into the search bar.

From now on, all users will be searchable on Facebook. No hiding any more. Here are some of the things you should do to protect yourself.

Revisit your private setting

Use the View As feature to see what information is visible to the public, your friends and families.

To find the View as feature, go to your profile and click the gear icon at the bottom of your cover photo. Click the “View us” then at the top of your profile, click “View as a Specific Person”.  In the searching bar, type the names of friends to view your profile as they see it.

If you find information you want to remove, visit your Activity Log. Use the timeline slider on the right and the menu on the left to find the post you want to edit, then click the pencil icon or the privacy setting drop-down list to make changes.

To hide past post, click on private setting then under the first option – “Who can see my stuff”, click “limit past posts” and enable the option.

My final advice is that don’t always rely only on Facebook private setting. I know Facebook has a very good private setting, but they are changing their private setting every time.  The reason I am saying this is that I see many people putting their personal information like address, birthday, and phone on Facebook.  I don’t think it is smart and safe to put this information on Facebook.  Don’t expect Facebook to protect your privacy. Do it by yourself. Don’t put sensitive information online.

Source InformationWeek

AW