Everyday Nerd

Due to recent privacy concerns, it’s a good idea to ensure that you are keeping your Facebook account secure, and private!  Facebook has done a decent job at making this task a rather difficult job – spreading privacy settings across many menus, and confusing the average user.

ReclaimPrivacy.org has a fantastic tool to check your Facebook Privacy settings.  To use the security scanner, visit http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/ 

Scroll down to the “Get Protected” section.   Depending on the browser you are using, follow the directions for your browser:

Firefox/Chrome users: Click and drag the “Scan for Privacy” link to your browser’s bookmarks bar.

Go to Facebook.com, sign in, and click the “Scan for Privacy” shortcut in your Bookmarks Bar.

You will see the security scanner at the top of the page, and the results within a few seconds (depending on you internet connection)

Internet Explorer Users:

Note:  I tried to add the link to my favorites, as directed to, but was unable to (using IE 8), so am posting directions how to do it another way. 

Right click “Scan for Privacy”, and choose “Copy Shortcut”

 

Now, sign into Facebook, and click in the Address bar, delete all text in the address bar, and paste (right click Paste, or Ctrl+V on your keyboard).  You should see the following text in the address bar:

Press Enter, and the Security Scan will begin:

Both Browsers:  Depending on the results, adjust your privacy as needed!

With Facebook privacy being a concern these days, it was nice of the Facebook folks enabling this new feature.  To enable notifications, go to Account, Account Settings, Account Security, and enable alerts – checking SMS if you wish to receive those as well.

Once notifications is enabled,  you will be prompted, on next login, to name the computer you are logging in from.  This allows you to track what devices are logging in.  You can see the details by going back to Account, Account Settings, and Account Security.

I tested this from my mobile device, and was promptly notified via SMS that I had logged into Facebook using Facebook for iPhone.  Next, I logged in using the mobile web browser on the iPhone, but was not notified.  Wasn’t too happy about that, but it may have been because I had just accessed Facebook from the same device, just via an App instead of the browser.  I’ll have to try this from another phone and see what the results are.

All in all, it’s a start in the right direction for Facebook.