Do You Do Your Best to Protect Your Privacy on Facebook and LinkedIn?

Do you do your best to protect your privacy on Facebook and LinkedIn? Many of my clients are worried about privacy when it comes to social media.

All of us should periodically review our privacy and related settings for each of our social media sites. Taking this action will not only help to address privacy concerns, it will improve your overall experience with these sites.

 

Facebook

• Find your settings by clicking on the arrow to the right of the bell icon in your menu bar.
• Click on “Settings and Privacy” and then click on “Privacy.”
• In the “General Account” settings, verify that the email associated with your Facebook account is correct. Also, check to be sure that this email isn’t displayed on your Facebook profile, often called your Facebook page.
• Set up two-factor authentication in the “Security and Login” settings to try to keep others from logging into your account. However, sometimes I’ve found that people can still find a way to log into your account, even when I’ve used this feature.
• Regularly check the “Security and Login” settings to see if anyone other than you has logged into your Facebook account. If that happens, click on the three dots to the right of this login and click on “Secure account.” You will need to change your Facebook password. Also, Facebook will show recent activity on the account. If there’s anything you see that you didn’t do, you can undo it.
• In the “Privacy” setting, limit who can see your list of Facebook friends to “only you.” Also, do not let search engines outside of Facebook link to your Facebook profile.
• Use the “Privacy” settings to determine who can see your posts and the posts others share on your personal page. In general, only share your posts with your Facebook friends, as opposed to anyone on Facebook.
• The “Profile and Tagging” settings determine who can post on your personal page and who sees those posts. You can also review in advance any posts in which you are tagged by others. Then you can decide if you want those posts to appear on your page.

 

LinkedIn

• Find your settings by clicking on the arrow to the right of the word “Me” in your menu bar. Click on “Settings and Privacy.”
• The “Sign in and security” settings show which emails you have associated with your LinkedIn account. If you have more than one email address connected to your account, check to see which one is the primary one. Most LinkedIn users want their business email account to be the primary one.
• These settings are also where you will see the option to use what LinkedIn calls two-step verification. This option is similar to Facebook’s two-factor authentication. Enabling it keeps others from logging into your account.
• You can change your account’s password in these settings, as well as see where you are signed into LinkedIn.
• The “Data privacy” settings give you the option of keeping LinkedIn from sharing your data with its third-party partners.
• Most people who post on LinkedIn are fine with anyone seeing their posts. You do have the option to select the audience for your posts if you want to limit the audience. You do this by clicking on the arrow next to “Anyone” which is where you create your post on the home page.

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 55 and up, to become more effective using social media, especially LinkedIn and Facebook. She works with business owners, business development professionals, business consultants, job seekers, and more – ranging from entrepreneurs to people in large corporations. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.