Facebook Privacy Settings: How To Fix Your Profile In 2 Minutes (VIDEO)

In light of recent changes, Facebook privacy settings these days can be a hassle.

To exert full control over your privacy on Facebook, you have to navigate through 50 settings with more than 170 options.

All of the settings can be mind-boggling, unless you know where to go for the most important fixes.

Here's everything you need to know to go back to the old days when you could control your privacy on Facebook with just a few clicks.

Comments

[had-enough]

12:35 PM on 05/24/2010

Deactivate and GET OFF FACEBOOK FAST! Class action lawsuit against Zuckerberg too! Simple!

[baronmerlot]

12:29 AM on 05/17/2010

Isn't your privacy (especially with photos) dependent on your friends making changes to their privacy settings as well? I remember reading that even though I may change the settings on my posted photos (or delete them altogether) if my friends have them posted and haven't changed their settings, they would still be out there.

[sushi27]

08:10 PM on 05/16/2010

I don't have a "friends, tags and connections" link on my facebook page??????????

[Tenley]

06:38 PM on 05/16/2010

It's not that users don't know where the privacy settings are. It's that with every new Facebook reorganization -- and the site overhauls itself ***several times a year*** -- there is a whole new slew of settings that are all defaulted to "everyone" seeing and you have to go comb through and reset every single one of them. And then there are featuress Facebook suddenly makes public that had always been private before and Facebook flatout no longer gives users an option to make private again. And people generally **do not use screen names on the site** -- yes, it's a social network but no, that doesn't mean users don't have legitimate privacy and security reasons behind choosing not to have every single piece of information readily available to "everybody."

[David Monroe]

12:35 PM on 05/16/2010

Fixing your FB privacy is one thing, but your privacy is only a secure as your friends'. Not to mention the sites that can search every status updates for keywords. It's troubling.

[SF TKF]

01:49 PM on 05/14/2010

Don't have a FB page. Never will.

[Politiplasm]

08:11 PM on 05/15/2010

WooHoo! That is sooooooooooo awesome! Way to go bro!

Woooooooooooo! YEAH! Sweet!

[ectoendomezo]

01:44 PM on 05/14/2010

Social Netwroking Sites.."SNS's"..are Not "Liesure"..they're "Servitude"!

Go on..work your "Farm"..in the desperate hope that you'll receive some kind of "Attention" or "Approval"..from what amounts to 98% total strangers.

The fastes growing demographic of 'sns' users is "Female Baby Boomers"..Women 50-65 years old..desperate..insecure..selling their souls for the mind-numbing "Comfort" of an "Online Existance"....the promise of "limitless boundles friendship"..is in reality...a fairly mean-spirited fabrication.

"Self-Branindg"

SNSs flat out "Entice" users to divulge and update more and more personal information..stroking fragile ego's with 'Filtered Ads'that utilize Your personal Information to reap Huge Profits...leaving nothing but the paranoia of "how Your being Perceived"..attempting pathetically to avoid the "Virtual Consequences" of being deemed.."Uncool".

Join the Resistance!

"Terminate" your "Virtual Servant" and Reclaim your Real Life!

seppukoo.com

[SabyW35]

05:59 PM on 05/14/2010

I love your quote, you have a right on witt ; )

[helenwheels]

02:31 PM on 05/16/2010

I just use it to keep in touch with family and friends, send them messages & chat with them. What's wrong with that?

[tribalogical]

08:41 PM on 05/16/2010

That's exactly what it's for, right? And that's all any of us really want from it. A way to stay in touch with friends (long-lost or otherwise), family, or whomever...

Meanwhile, a friend decides to sign up for something via a facebook app, and what does it tell them? "This application requires your personal info and your friends personal info in order to function".

And for some reason, millions go ahead an click on in anyway... and that app, unbeknownst to YOU, sucks in all your personal info from your profile. Most people don't even get that they're doing that.

So basically the way things are set up, your friends are allowed to share YOUR personal info with pretty much anyone else, at their whim.

Now, look at friends of friends. I have a whopping 54 friends on Facebook. But a few of those friends have over 1,000 facebook friends each, and I don't know most of them from Adam. So, I restricted my privacy settings to "friends only" for most things.

Still, when my friend joined Farmville, all 1,000+ of his friends had their personal details packed up and shipped off to the makers of Farmville, permission fully granted.

The kicker is, there IS NO WAY to prevent that, short of blocking people on a friend by friend basis... imagine having to block 1,000 people, one person at a time.

That is just ONE small example of the issues I have with Facebook's privacy policy.

[had-enough]

12:36 PM on 05/24/2010

Get off Facebook asap! NOT SAFE!

[ibivi]

01:21 PM on 05/14/2010

The adjustment for Facebook is now available. It should be a default setting automatically but Facebook leaves it up to users to change. I have adjusted my account. But we should contact Facebook letting them know that basic security features should be default settings for all personal accounts.

[stalkingcat]

01:19 PM on 05/14/2010

This tutorial actually forgot something in the bonus. There are actually two settings under Facebook Ads tab. You need to scroll down to find the "Show my social actions in Facebook Ads to" box.

[dukeitout]

12:28 PM on 05/14/2010

If information is entered on the internet, I assume it can be distributed to others; regardless of the declared privacy promises.

[tribalogical]

08:48 PM on 05/16/2010

Not true. Just a couple of years ago, your Facebook profile information could be kept very private. Now that simply isn't possible, no matter how you set things up (they don't give you ALL the options needed to really lock it down).

Its one thing to limit the info you post. It's another to have everything you do watched, tracked, databased and sold to third-parties, who then, since they got permission to "know you" via your friends using an app, can start marketing to you, reselling your info, and so on.

I've just completely scrubbed my FB profile. No more personal details, photos, Likes, Pages, Applications, etc.

Just me, my friends, and our wall posts... there is nothing else aside from that left to "share"...

I'm going to keep it that way until facebook gets their Privacy House in order... and if they don't, I'm happy to find (or maybe create!) an alternative.

[had-enough]

12:38 PM on 05/24/2010

AMEN! BOYCOTT FACEBOOK stay private and safe! Parents get kids OFF FACEBOOK NOW!

[ibivi]

12:24 PM on 05/14/2010

Facebook is down right now. I tried to login and a maintenance message appeared. Thanks for the info but I can't do anything until they open it up again.

[had-enough]

12:39 PM on 05/24/2010

Let's hope it is DOWN forever. But, that puk uckerberg wants more $$$ for another Rolls Royce so it will re-surface. Stay clear! DON'T let your kids on it!

[amanandamouse]

12:07 PM on 05/14/2010

I watched this video and checked my settings and didn't have to change a thing. It's amazing to me that people don't look at these settings when they join.

[ibivi]

01:28 PM on 05/14/2010

Facebook has a lot of features and not all of them are presented when users first sign up. In some cases I don't know what they're talking about because they use their own lingo. If they were upfront about these issues we wouldn't be unaware of vulnerabilities on their site. They're playing peek-a-boo with users.

[had-enough]

12:40 PM on 05/24/2010

Well put! Class action lawsuit might straighten that out!

[EmWilly]

03:02 PM on 05/14/2010

I'm with ya. Whenever I sign up for any kind of account my first stop is the settings/tools/options page. I meticulously combed through my Facebook settings when I signed up. I realize many folks don't know about the privacy options or understand how to configure them, but a wise user would take it upon themselves to learn. One can Google anything and get tutorials if Facebook's own website doesn't make things clear enough.

[hollywoodjaxx]

11:44 AM on 05/14/2010

Thanks for the info...much appreciated!

[ColorAllSoCal]

11:10 AM on 05/14/2010

Ugh.. was highly excited and initially appreciative of this video.. right up till the THIRD STEP FACEPALM FAILS due fact it my facebook settings dont even offer 'personal info' and posts' ??!!??

Any better alternative sources with same goal me fellow disenfranchised FB'ianites please?

[Chazz27]

11:34 AM on 05/14/2010

On Facebook look up in the right hand corner for Account. Hit the drop down arrow and select Privacy. Those settings are there.

[dben]

11:06 AM on 05/14/2010

That FB users neither know nor care these settings exist is remarkable.

And lazy.