People love Facebook. They spend hours on this social website keeping up with friends and telling the world about what they have been doing. But, many people do not realize the security risks associated with using the site. They just enjoy using it and do not realize the implications of what a breach could have on their lives. Therefore, we have decided to provide a list of tips you need to know in order to make your experience on Facebook more secure and more productive.
Be Sure You Logged Out
It happens to the best of us. You used a computer other than your own and are unsure if you logged out. So what do you do? No need to worry, Facebook makes it incredibly easy to find out which devices you’re currently logged in on.
Just navigate to Settings, Security and then Where You’re Logged In. From there, you can see all the devices you’re logged into, and logout remotely from any of them.
Save Those Reads for Later
Have you ever noticed an interesting article in your news feed that you’d love to read, but don’t have the time to do so there and then? Have you tried to find that same article later with little luck? Never deal with this annoyance again. Many people are completely unaware that Facebook allows you to conveniently save articles for later reading.
To do this, click on the drop-down arrow in the upper right-hand corner of the article, and then click Save link. When you finally have a free moment to give the article a read, click on the Saved tab located under Favorites in the left-hand sidebar on the news feed page.
Keep Important Dates on Your Calendar
If you’ve ever missed a birthday or an event because you forgot to list them on your main calendar, this Facebook tip may come in handy. You can export all these important dates to your Google or Apple calendar.
To the left of your news feed, click on the Events tab. Navigate to the highlighted box at the very bottom of the right-hand side of the page, that reads You can add your events to…, and then click the Learn More link. This will take you to a page that explains how to export your events and birthdays.
Get Alerts on New Logins
Paranoid about someone hacking into your account? If so, you can easily set alerts to notify you right away if someone logs into your account from a new device.
Navigate to Settings, Security and then Login Alerts. From here, simply choose how you’d like to be notified of suspicious logins from new devices or browsers: by email, text message, or Facebook notification.
Stop Targeted Ads from Showing
You may have noticed that ads of businesses you’ve visited on the web have somehow found their way into your Facebook news feed. This is by no means an accident. Like other websites that use targeted ads, Facebook uses cookies to determine which sites you’ve visited, and then shows you ads from those same sites.
If you’d like to turn ad targeting off, navigate to Settings and then Ads. From here you can change all the settings that determine the types of ads you see in your Facebook news feed. While there’s no way to completely turn off ads altogether, by changing your settings here you can make the ads you see more random and less personal. Essentially, your internet activity will no longer be tracked by Facebook cookies.