How to Protect Privacy on Facebook

Privacy Risks In Using Facebook
When contemplating using Facebook, users must engage in a cost-benefit analysis. This analysis will be different for every individual on both a personal and professional level. Even for individuals who are not concerned about incurring major risks to their personal and professional security, the constant temptation of accessing online social networking sites can be a drain upon their time and mental stability. For others, the concern that their friends may be judging them based upon their posts, particularly in this heightened and polarized political climate may be disconcerting. On the other hand, Facebook does provide an easy way to remain connected to individuals that a poster might not otherwise be in contact with, including old school friends and people with similar interests living far away.
The main professional concern for Facebook users is that something that a prospective or current employer might disagree with may be seen, even if their settings is set to private for friends only. An employer might try to solicit a user’s password to vet a prospective employee’s social media account and even without a password, employers can still screen public posts in which users have been unwittingly tagged by friends. According to McDonnell (2016), the use of Facebook screening of candidates for employment has increased 500% over the past decade. Even apparently innocuous posts like employees drinking in social settings can cast a negative impression.
On the other hand, using Facebook to network by engaging on the pages of professional associations can be extremely useful to job-seekers or current employees. And many employees must post on their employer’s own, Facebook pages. While arguably they could simply confine their posting to those pages, social media savvy and fluency is something which is a learned skill. Someone who eschews social media all of his or her life can be less savvy in terms of how to generate engagement and thus damage his or her media, marketing, and advertising employment prospects.
On a more practical basis, posting on Facebook about a trip or simply posting a great deal period can alert an employer that a sick or personal day was actually taken for a vacation day or that an employee is posting during work hours. Facebook can also be a tool for thieves to monitor, since they are aware that when someone checks into a restaurant or movie that the individual is going out for the night and it is clear that no one is home. “Some Facebook apps that share your location may have more relaxed privacy settings than you are comfortable with and may be blabbing your location without you realizing it” (O’Donnell, 2017, par. 13). Stalkers can also learn about an individual’s behavior, as can an ex who wishes to use evidence of irresponsible behavior in a court of law.
Thus, the risks of using Facebook are very real. They include the potential loss of jobs or job opportunities as well as looking bad in a divorce or custody dispute. Individuals with ill will can use social media information against an individual. They can even simply draw abuse and ridicule and once screenshotted, the original poster loses control over how they are disseminated. Setting posts to private viewing only is only the first step in assuring privacy protections.
Approaches Developed to Address Risks
First and foremost, not simply making all current posts private but all past posts private is vitally important. This is achieved by “…select ‘limit past posts.’ It's a move that's not easily undone, so you'll be asked to confirm that you want your posts made more private” (Titcomb, 2017, par.2). When a user is new to Facebook and still getting a sense of how to use the application, he or she may inadvertently have made public posts about personal information. Retroactive privacy controls undoes this mistake.
A second way to limit privacy is to limit check-ins to different places. This limits the amount of location data that is made public to different web-surfers. Unlike some other types of online sharing, check-ins are relatively minor posts that convey little relational information (part of the joys of connecting online). They do, however, reveal immediate temporal and spatial information about the poster which can be useful to someone who has bad intentions. However, people can still tag individuals and make their location known through their own check-ins; while it is possible to delete these posts from one’s own timeline or to prevent people from sharing at all on one’s timeline, the information will still be visible elsewhere on Facebook. To prevent this, it is suggested that users: “Turn on the Tag Review and Post Review features so that you can decide what gets posted about you before a post goes live” (O’Donnell, 2017, par. 2).
It is also important to carefully curate different friends lists. While limiting posts to friends is one solution, further limiting posts to certain lists of friends ensures further, more secure protections. “Create a list of your most trusted friends and set your privacy settings to allow more access for trusted friends and highly limited access to acquaintances who might end up being stalkers” or to simply limit information seen by work or professional versus personal acquaintances (O’Donnell, 2017, par. 13). This allows users to share more intimate material, such as political information, information about controversial artists the user might like, or off-color jokes that might be appropriate for certain friends only. Even then, this must be handled with care since friends can always screen-shot such posts and share them publically.
To further limit the ability of people outside of an immediate network of friends to search a user by name, it is also possible to limit the ability to be found by email addresses and phone numbers on Facebook. A user “can also select whether friends, friends of friends or everyone can find you with your email and phone number” (Titcomb, 2017, par. 8). Although this will not necessarily completely limit a potential employer’s ability to locate a prospective job candidate, it can limit it to some degree. Again, however, some potential employees may wish to use their established social media presence to show their ability to function in a marketing position and not all candidates in all fields of employment necessarily need to conceal their Facebook presence.
Conclusion
Facebook is a potentially beneficial tool for personal and professional satisfaction but like all tools it must be handled with care to ensure that it is useful for users. Sharing some things can be beneficial and generate social connections. Facebook allows users to participate in personal and professional networking. But a user must always be cognizant of who his or her audience might be. For some users, the perceived and real risks of using Facebook may seem too great and they may ultimately not elect to participate in the widely-used online community; for other users, there may be great benefits. But even people in relatively liberal and understanding professions with like-minded friends should think twice about making too many posts public. Big Brother may not always be watching but someone is always watching when someone posts something online, particularly on social media.

References
Fox-Brewster, T. (2016). Facebook is playing games with your privacy and there is nothing you
can do about it. Forbes. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2016/06/29/facebook-location-tracking- friend-games/#3eb4d26c35f9
Giang, V. (2012). Is it legal for employers to check Facebook? Business Insider. Retrieved from:
http://www.businessinsider.com/is-it-legal-for-employers-to-check-facebook-2012-3
Hern, A. (2016). Facebook is chipping away at privacy and my profile has been exposed.
The Guardian. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/29/facebook-privacy-secret-profile- exposed
McDonnell, A. (2016). 60% of employers are peeking into candidates' social media profiles.
Career Builder. https://www.careerbuilder.com/advice/60-of-employers-are-peeking-into- candidates-social-media-profiles
O’Donnell, A. (2017). The dangers of Facebook oversharing. Life Wire. Retrieved from:
https://www.lifewire.com/dangers-of-facebook-oversharing-2487777
Titcomb, J. (2016). Five ways you can change your Facebook profile to take your privacy back.
The Telegraph. Retrieved from:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/03/18/five-tricks-to-take-back-your- privacy-on-facebook/