Before you upload your latest holiday snaps, it’s a good idea to look under the bonnet of your Facebook account to ensure you have some basic privacy controls in place.
We’ve all heard the rumours that younger users are turning their backs on Facebook now their older relatives are popping up among their ‘Friend Requests’. Whether that’s true or not, the stats certainly show that the over 50s are taking to the platform in droves: as of last year, 70 percent of online boomers had a Facebook account, and recent research claims that 47 per cent expect to use Facebook more as they grow older.
If you’re among this enthusiastic band of followers, you’re most likely enjoying the opportunity to connect and share from the comfort of your home. But have you stopped to consider the privacy implications that go with everything you do?
Public vs. private
For more than 90 per cent of its 50-plus users, staying in touch with family and friends is what Facebook’s all about. However, up until last year, when new users sent out their first post, the default setting was ‘Public’, making it easy to inadvertently tell the world what you only meant to tell your inner circle.
Recognising that it’s much worse to overshare than the other way around, the social behemoth changed the default for new users to ‘Friends’ and, shortly after, launched its Privacy Checkup tool, which has simplified the once laborious task of managing your core settings.
To make sure you’re sharing with the right people, simply click the padlock symbol in the upper right corner of any Facebook page and follow these steps:
Your Posts
First up, unless your page is tied to a business, make sure your default audience is set to ‘Friends’. By clicking on this setting, you also have the option to customise further by scrolling down to ‘More Options’ and then hitting ‘Custom’.
Here you can include all your Friends, while adding the names of people to exclude. And it’s worth noting that unless you uncheck the ‘Friends of tagged’ box, the Friends of anyone you’ve tagged in a photo or post will be able to see that post.
You can also select or restrict your audience by lists; and if you haven’t created any yet, you’ll find they come in handy, say, when you’d rather not share certain photos with work associates.
Lastly, it’s good to know that you can change who you share with on a per post basis via the sharing button to the left of ‘Post’. And if you slip up, you can alter the settings of posts you’ve already sent out by clicking on the people icon to the right of the date.
Your Apps
You may not think this step applies to you, but if you’ve ever logged into an app using Facebook the chances are it has sharing permissions on your account. The revamped Facebook Login launched last year has made this process more transparent, but prior to this you may have unwittingly given an app permission to post to your Friends pages.
Here you can see exactly which apps are attached to your account and adjust their sharing rights. And if there are any you no longer use, it’s a good idea to just delete them by hitting the ‘x’. Setting the remainder to ‘Only Me’ means they won’t have permission to spam your friends or notify others that you have the app installed – handy if you’re a closet gamer!
Be aware, however, that the people you share information with on Facebook can bring it with them when they use apps. To control what they share, it’s worth clicking on the App Settings link in this window to edit ‘Apps Others Use’.
Your Profile
In this section you can see a partial list (click the ‘About Page’ button for more) of personal details and the privacy settings for each. It’s safer to restrict your email addresses to Friends but you can adjust the others according to your preferences. Happily, there are separate settings for the day/month and year of your birth, which means you can still get plenty of birthday posts while keeping your actual age under your hat!
Of course, things change – and Facebook has been known to accidentally reset settings – so it’s a good idea to check back regularly and make any necessary adjustments. It’s also important to note that these are just your basic controls – it’s worth drilling down deeper once a year or so to review your advanced privacy settings via the drop down arrow to the far right of any Facebook page.
Our privacy is something we only really start to value when we lose it – so don’t leave it too late to protect yours.
This story first appeared on former NRMA site Livingwell Navigator in Sept, 2015.
