NAVY COMMAND PRINCIPAL SECURITY ADVISOR RECOMMENDED FACEBOOK SECURITY SETTINGS

Transcription

1 NAVY COMMAND PRINCIPAL SECURITY ADVISOR RECOMMENDED FACEBOOK SECURITY SETTINGS NC PSyA Recommended Facebook Settings - October

2 Introduction 3 Privacy Shortcuts 3 Privacy Settings and Tools 6 General Account Settings 7 Security Settings 7 Timeline and Tagging 8 Manage Blocking 9 Notification Settings 9 Mobile Settings 9 Follower Settings 10 App Settings 10 Facebook Adverts 10 Payments Settings 11 Profile Settings 12 Securing Photos 13 Making Comments 13 Conclusion 13 NC PSyA Recommended Facebook Settings - October

3 Facebook Security Settings Introduction The use of Social Media is growing rapidly. With ever evolving technology it is now much easier to share your life on applications such as Facebook. Facebook updates its Security Settings regularly and it is often difficult keeping up with the number of settings. Using the recommended settings highlighted in this comprehensive guide and locking down your Facebook will reduce your cyber footprint which will help protect you and your family. The majority of these changes should be performed from the Desktop settings. There are some settings in the mobile apps but for the full set use an internet browser. Privacy Shortcuts Recently Facebook has recognized that it needs to improve its Privacy Settings. They have added a Privacy Shortcut to the Security tab. It is accessed by clicking on the Padlock. The first option presented is PRIVACY CHECK-UP. This shortcut allows some very basic changes to be made very quickly. Option one Your Posts allows you to determine who gets to see what you share. There are 2 main options Public - which will allow anyone on Facebook to see your posts Friends (RECOMMENDED) - Will limit your posts to just your friends NC PSyA Recommended Facebook Settings - October

4 The next option presented is APPS. From here you can determine which Apps within Facebook you wish to share. You can also delete Apps that you long since forgotten had been allowed to access your Account. If you allow an App access it is able to take any information you hold with Facebook and use it to enhance the Facebook experience - for the complete Lock Down requirement then delete ALL Apps. However Apps can be changed to determine who can see what: to remove the App from access Public - Again everyone can see what you are using Friends - Limited to your friends Only Me - In this option App information will appear in your Timeline only Delete App (Recommended) - Click on the X to the right The final option presented is PROFILE. From here you can determine who gets to see secure information such as telephone numbers, addresses and birthday information. If you wish to remove this information this has to be done separately from this tool. Again the familiar settings are available and it is Recommended to use Only Me for all the settings. Returning to Privacy Shortcuts allows further options. Firstly Who Can See My Stuff? There is another chance to amend who can see Future Posts. Again it is recommended to set this to FRIENDS. Next option Where do I review.? Clicking on Use Activity Log will present everything you have liked, posted, commented or even tagged and then decide if you wish to share this with the Public, Friends or Only Me. Sharing anything with the Public does allow people who are not friends to see your activity. Therefore Friends or Only Me are the more secure options NC PSyA Recommended Facebook Settings - October

5 The final option here is invaluable. Clicking on View As will show you what your Public profile looks like. In other words what people who are not your friends see about you. From here you can then decide what to keep and what to hide. Who Can Contact Me? Finally How Do I Stop Someone From Bothering Me? Whose Messages do I want filtered into my inbox? Allow control over who you can receive messages from, the two options are Basic Filtering - This will mean pretty much anyone can message you or Strict Filtering (Recommended) - which limits this to friends and people Facebook recognize that you know. Who Can Send Me Friend Requests? As the title suggests you can limit where you get Friend Requests from to either Everyone or Friends of Friends. This is where you can prevent nuisance Facebook users from ever seeing your account. Simply type their name in and they will be prevented from finding you, will not see any comments made by you on friends timelines or be able to message or friend request you. View All Blocked Users - will show the names of who you have blocked. So from one shortcut, Facebook has allowed a lot of Security improvements to be made to accounts. However there are a number of more detailed options available to the user which are accessible from See More Settings at the bottom of the Privacy Shortcuts drop down. To the left are a number of options. The first of these is Privacy Settings and Tools. NC PSyA Recommended Facebook Settings - October

6 Privacy Settings and Tools A number of the options used in the Privacy Shortcut are repeated here but there are also new options to utilize. Under Who Can See My Stuff you can, again, chose who can see your future posts to either Public or Friends (Recommended). Click Edit to change. Review all your posts and things you're tagged in. This will take you to your Activity Log where you can change what you have posted to be visible to Public, Friends or Only Me. A useful tool here is Limit the audience for posts you've shared with friends of friends or Public. In essence selecting Limit Past Posts and then after the warning Limit Old Posts will change everything you have shared with anyone other than Friends or Only Me to just shared with Friends. In other words it locks away all previous postings you have made. Needless to say this is a Recommended course of action. The options under Who can contact me? are identical to the Privacy Shortcut. Recommended settings being for Strict Filtering of My Inbox. Who can look me up? presents some new options, Who can look you up..? allows you to determine how contactable you wish to be. By selecting Friends (Recommended) it means that only your friends have access to the address and phone numbers you have shared on Facebook. Note that this means ALL your friends have access to this information. Do you want other search engines to link to your Timeline? Turning this off (Recommended) reduces the likelihood of your information appearing if someone searches you via Google or other such search engines. This will help reduce your cyber footprint. NC PSyA Recommended Facebook Settings - October

7 General Account Settings This menu does give some security settings. Under you can change the primary address you use for Facebook. As a security Recommendation it is advisable to create a separate address just for Facebook, that way you can keep your main address (the one used for banking, shopping etc) away from Social Media. Facebook reminds you how long since you last changed your Password. You also are told how strong your current password is. It is Recommended you use a minimum of 9 characters and mix upper case, lower case, numbers and special characters into a password. Download a copy of your Facebook data will send an to your primary address containing your personal archive. This will enable you to review your Facebook history. Note: This does take a fair amount of time to complete. Security Settings Login Notifications Selecting this option will allow you to be warned if access is attempted to your account from a new device. This is done by or text and it is Recommended that one option is chosen. Login Approvals Selecting this option means a Security Code will be sent to you to allow access from unknown browsers. It is Recommended to activate this option as it will mean that if anyone attempts to log into your Facebook they will need your account to do so. Code Generator This defaults to allowing Facebook to set your codes needed for Login Approvals. A third party app can be used if you do not trust Facebook. App Passwords If an App you use does not like the generated code then you can choose a password to allow the app to access Facebook. This is recommended if you are using the Code Generator. Trusted Contacts are friends who you can call upon should you have any access difficulties to your account. They will be able to generate codes on your behalf. They should be someone you can rely on. This is a Recommended setting with the right people to help you. NC PSyA Recommended Facebook Settings - October

8 Trusted Browsers Used with Login Approvals, this allows you to decide which Apps are able to access Facebook without a code being needed. For example, if you use Android and then change to Apple ios a code will be needed before the ios App works with Facebook. Where You're Logged In shows where you are currently logged into Facebook, for example from a Desktop, Mobile Phone or Tablet. This setting is useful if you have used a public device and have forgotten to log off as you can choose to end the session remotely. Finally, Deactivate your account will, as it suggests, remove your presence from Facebook completely or, if you prefer, take a temporary break from Facebook. Timeline and Tagging This menu allows you some control access to your name, image etc being tagged by people in Facebook posts. It is worth noting that this is only an option for your OWN TIMELINE. You have no control to prevent friends posting images of you on Facebook (a privacy matter between you and another). However you can remove the Tag to your name. Who can post on your timeline? allows you to determine if you want Friends or Only Me to post onto your Timeline. Review posts that friends tag you. The Recommendation is to switch this ON. This means that if a friend tags you in a post or photo then you will be advised before it is published to your wall. Whilst it will not stop friends from tagging you, it will mean that unless you Approve the tag your name will not be available to click on. Review what other people see allows you to see how your profile looks in public or via one of your friends. It is useful to see how successful your settings have been. Who can see posts you've been tagged in on your timeline? controls how accessible your information is when a friend tags you. This defaults to Friends but can be set to Public. If a friend has not locked down their profile sufficiently then any tags of you will appear where ever your friend has allowed. Who can see what others post on your Timeline? defaults to Friends. If you want these posts for your own personal enjoyment then change this setting to Only Me. Review Tags people add to your own posts before they appear on Facebook. This option means that you have control over who is, and isn t, tagged on any Facebook post you have generated. The Recommended setting would be ON. When you re tagged in a post, who do you want to add to the audience? defaults to Friends. In this case if you are tagged the Post will appear on your Timeline so that friends can also see it. NC PSyA Recommended Facebook Settings - October

9 Who sees tag suggestions? Not currently available. When ready Only Me is the Recommended setting. Manage Blocking Manage Blocking gives you the ability to prevent unwelcome Facebook users from making contact with you, prevent certain Apps from sending invites and also prevents friends who continue to send you App Invites from doing so. Restricted List allows you to select friends who you may not wish to share Timeline information with but want the ability to remain in contact with. Notification Settings This menu allows you to customize the amount of Notifications you get both within Facebook and via . There are a couple of Recommended security settings here. You have the ability to minimise s from Facebook. However it is Recommended that you allow notifications relating to your account, security and privacy. Tags will notify you if you are ever tagged in Facebook. The Recommended setting is Everyone. Mobile Settings Adding a mobile phone number here means you can receive texts from Facebook for notifications. It also means your mobile number is added to your Facebook account and may be visible to EVERYONE. If you wish to add this then it is Recommended that you edit your settings (shown later in this guide) to reduce visibility of your number. NC PSyA Recommended Facebook Settings - October

10 Follower Settings This setting allows you to determine who can follow your posts. The default is Friends. This is also the Recommended setting as the alternative is Everyone which will place all your posts available to ALL Facebook users except those you have specifically blocked. App Settings This menu will allow you to control your Apps and their audience and also remove long forgotten or unwanted Apps. When you add an App to Facebook you give it permission to access your account. This will include your Friends list and Timeline. Care should be taken when using Apps. In some cases if you block an App from Facebook you cannot publish from that App to Facebook. For example your Wordpress blog would not be shared. Setting Old Versions of Facebook for Mobile to Only Me (Recommended) increases the privacy of older Apps on mobile devices. Facebook Adverts do not appear on your Timeline. Facebook will utilize your information to give a Richer experience by allowing advertisers to publish on your wall if you have shown an interest in that area. These settings allow you to select the Recommended No One and prevent third-party sites from using you in adverts (which is coming soon) or from advertisers using your name to promote their product on Friends Timelines. Your Friends need to do the same so that their Adverts NC PSyA Recommended Facebook Settings - October

11 Facebook also uses Cookies from your webbrowser to target you with adverts as well. These can only be prevented when the advert appears on your Timeline. Payments Settings The main and Recommended setting here is to ensure that NO PAYMENT METHODS are saved. NC PSyA Recommended Facebook Settings - October

12 Profile Settings Whilst all of the above will improve the security of your Facebook Profile, you can customize settings further. information. Selecting About takes you to your personal information overview. From here you can edit the privacy of your Selecting each tab will take you to the relevant information. Within this, you have the option of selecting Everyone, Friends or Only Me for each setting. For example if you want to keep that you work for the Royal Navy as a personal matter then selecting Only Me means that nobody else will see where you work. As to what is Recommended, this is a personal choice. Clearly Only Me gives the best protection but Friends would mean you are sharing with people you believe can be trusted. It is not recommended to select Everyone. Selecting Manage Sections will allow you to determine what information is shared on your profile. If you do not want anyone knowing you use Spotify, for example, simply remove the tick from the list. It is often these sections that are visible to EVERYONE when you View As to see your public profile. If you prefer not to close a section off completely you can (in most cases) edit the privacy of that information as shown here. Choosing Edit Privacy will allow your choice to be shared with Friends, Everyone or Just Me. Everyone will place this on your Public Timeline. NC PSyA Recommended Facebook Settings - October

13 Securing Photos The exception to the above is the privacy of photographs. To ensure your photos are secure you have to edit the privacy of each photo one by one. Like all posts the default is set to what ever you selected under Who Can See My Stuff? So, if this is set to Friends and you are happy then no further editing is needed. It is worth noting that your Profile Picture and Cover Photo are ALWAYS available to everyone, so chose those carefully. Making Comments If you make a comment on someone else's Post it is worth being aware that your comment is visible to all the friends of that person. If their visibility is set to Everyone then everyone will see your comment. Be mindful when sharing information. This also applies to any postings on Pages or Open Groups which are automatically available to everyone even if your settings are for FRIENDS only. Conclusion The use of Social Media is growing rapidly. With ever evolving Technology it is now much easier to share your life and private information on applications such as Facebook. Using the recommended settings highlighted here will help reduce your cyber footprint and protect you and your family. NC PSyA Recommended Facebook Settings - October