With most of the civilized world (or so it seems) now on
Facebook, some users have been unpleasantly surprised to find out who contacts them out of the blue, or who lets them know they saw that photo from a party in May (“Wasn’t that the day you called in sick?”) That’s because by default, Facebook is promiscuous about who it allows to search for your personal information and for photos in which you have been tagged by name.
Unless you stay off Facebook entirely, you can’t stop others from finding your profile or seeing photos of you. But in a few minutes, you can at least make it harder for them to search you out.
The way people connect digitally.
Protect your personal profile – By default, all the information you enter into your personal profile is visible to “Everyone,” which means not just everyone on
Facebook, but everyone on the Internet, since other people don’t need to login to Facebook to see it. Someone who Googles your name will very likely get a link to your profile page.
If that bothers you, log in to Facebook and select the menu option Account -> Privacy Settings in the upper right corner. That will take you to a page titled “Choose Your Privacy Settings.” At the top is a section labeled “Connecting on Facebook.” To restrict who can find your profile information, click the link that says “View Settings.” There are seven different actions there that other users can take to learn about and connect with you. All are allowable to everyone by default. Click the Everyone setting to change it.
Some options, like “Search for you on Facebook,” can be restricted only as far as to Facebook friends. That’s O.K., because you need to personally approve all your friends before they can do so. Other settings, like “See your city and hometown,” can be blocked off completely, if you don’t want to be tracked down by location. To do that, click the Everyone option, choose Customize from the menu that pops up, and set these actions to be available to “Only Me.” Resist the urge to set them to Friends of Friends if you’re worried about who will see it. It can be surprising how far into society Facebook can reach in two hops.
You’re almost done. Now go back to the Choose Your Privacy Settings page and look for “Apps and Web sites” in the lower left corner. Click the “Edit your settings” link. That will take you to a page titled Apps, Games and Web sites (consistency in labeling is not Facebook’s strong point.) At the bottom of that page, look for “Public search.” Click the Edit Settings button and, in the
dialog box that pops up, uncheck the box labeled “Enable public search.” Click the Confirm dialog that pops up.
Now, if someone does a
Google search of the link to your profile page, when they click it Facebook will show them a message that says “This content is currently unavailable.” But that doesn’t mean you’re totally hidden. Users may still be able to view a cached copy of your pre-blocked profile.
Keep your name out of photos – Facebook allows anyone to upload photos — which may be pictures of you — and tag them with your name. You can’t stop them, but you can prevent other Facebook users from finding pictures of you by name.
Again, go to the “Choose Your Privacy Settings” page. Look for the section labeled “Sharing on Facebook,” and click the link that says “Customize Settings.” Scroll down to the section of that page labeled “Things others share.” Look for the setting for “Photos and videos you’re tagged in.” Click the Edit Settings button to pop up a
dialog box where you can choose Customize, which brings up another dialog box with the option “Only Me.”
That way, when someone else tags you, only they and you will be able to find that photo by searching for photos of you. (While you’re at it, disable the option below it to “Suggest photos of me to friends,” which Facebook does by using
facial recognition software on photos. Chances are if you hate being tagged, this feature creeps you out, too.)
But be warned: If another Facebook user does come across that photo outside of search — say by looking at your friend’s photo albums, you will still be tagged in it.
To keep on top of photo tags, go to your profile page and click Photos in the left-hand column. You’ll be able to see all photos in which you have been tagged. By default, Facebook also informs you via e-mail and on your Notifications on Facebook whenever you are tagged in a photo.
Check your visibility – To see what information from your profile will be displayed to others, you can edit your profile and, while on the editing page,
use Facebook’s View My Profile option to see how your profile will be displayed to a specific other user.
But how can you check what information can be seen by users who aren’t your Facebook friends, and by random people on the Internet? Log out of Facebook. Then, either
Google up your profile page (search for “[your name] facebook” to find it), or click the Facebook URLs in your browser’s history. That will show you what someone who isn’t a Facebook user at all will see.
What about Facebook users you haven’t accepted as friends? One way to see what they can see is to create a dummy account with no friends. Log in to that account and again, try searching for yourself.
