Quick guide to clean and better secure your Facebook account
Ways to keep your Facebook account Safe
Removing Old, Unwanted Apps And Permissions
Most Facebook users quickly accumulate a large number of apps in their profile and never bother to remove any of them. Giving away account permissions to so many unwanted apps you no longer use can endanger your privacy. If your Facebook account has been open for a few years, you might have collected a few unsafe apps along the way and we are going to show you how to clean out all of those unwanted permission snatchers.
First click on the gear icon to bring up the drop down menu
and select “Settings”
Second, on the left-hand side menu, select “Apps”
Under App Settings you will have an “Apps you use” list, start removing each unwanted, old or unused app by clicking the x on the right side and voila its’ gone.
Erase Your Facebook Search History
Most users are oblivious that Facebook has a record of every search you have made. Just like your browser conveniently saves all your searches until removed, Facebook thought it was a good idea to do the same. If you are like me, you do not want to have any of that remain on for too long a period.
All of your search terms get saved under your Activity Log. To view the search history and delete it, click on the gear once more for the drop down menu and select “Activity Log”
Next click on the “MORE” button on the left-hand side column to bring the whole list
And finally, click on “Search: at the bottom of the list to bring up your history
Here you can view all of your historical search terms and if you wish to delete it all, click on “Clear Searches” option at the top right-hand side.
Additional Tips To Keep Your Profile Safe
Very Important! Be Careful What You Post! – Nowadays, a picture or video can go viral in the matter of minutes. Please be cautious of what you share on the internet. It is important to teach the younger crowd to be careful and respect each other’s privacy. Avoid posting your own or someone else’s photos or videos that may get you or someone else in trouble, embarrassed or hurt. Once it gets copied and shared a few times, there is no stopping it.
Moderate Timeline Posts & Tags: Although anyone can tag you in a post or picture or write something on your wall, you can have a say if it appears on your timeline or not. To change this option, go under your “Settings Page” and select “Timeline and Tagging” – edit “Review Posts Friends Tag You in Before They Appear on Your Timeline?” and turn On. Now you will get notified of any wall posts or tags.
Disable Public Search: If you do not wish for people to be able to find you by searching for your name, you can select an option to remove the possibility of others locating your profile, effectively preventing anyone from adding or messaging you from the search function. To change this option, go under your “Settings Page” and select “Privacy” – Under “Who Can Look Me Up?” you can customize your level of cloaking by choosing that only existing friends can look you up using name, email or phone number if provided. Make sure to also turn off search engine link to avoid your profile from appearing on Google searches.
Setting Your Profile To Private: Last but not least, it is very important to set your profile to private if you do not want to give access to your posts and photos to strangers or unwanted snooping. To change this option, go under your “Settings Page” and select “Privacy” – Under “Who Can See My Stuff? Make sure to select Friends and not Public. This will effectively make your profile private to outsiders. Additionally, one can make custom friend lists with different permissions for each to customize your profile privacy.