Facebook could mean more than communicating with friends.
If users aren’t careful, they could be sharing all of their personal information with the entire global community.
But a few changes to privacy settings could keep what is private out of the public realm.
Sophomore Catie McLey said she was careful about photos and status updates on her Facebook profile.
“I don’t put up any pictures that can get me in trouble,” she said. “I have my profile so only friends can see it. I don’t have it open.”
McLey is not the only online user practicing this protocol. An article posted on the New Times Web site in January called “The Three Facebook Settings Every User Should Check Now” lists three privacy settings users can change on their pages, as well as directions for making those changes.
The first step in the article describes how to change settings for photos, status updates and other information people can post to their pages. The writer of the article cautions that this information could spread to any Facebook user if privacy settings are lax.
McLey said she untagged herself from any photos she did not want on her Facebook page and she tried not to vent her feelings through the social networking site either.
Junior Kassandra Coover said she, too, was cautious about what she posted on Facebook and did not even have the year of her birthday listed online in an attempt to protect her privacy.
“Basically, I think I have it set so just my friends can see it,” she said. “I just have a couple family pictures and pictures from my Thailand trip. I just like to be safe and not let people see my information if they don’t need to.”
This precaution by Coover goes along with the article’s second tip on maintaining privacy on Facebook. It suggests setting all personal information such as birthdays, relationships, and political views so only friends can see it.
The third safety step in the New York Times article discusses the possibility of personal Facebook information appearing on search engines.
According to the article, only some information would likely be available on search engines, but the article still recommends disabling this feature to ensure that information remains private.
Senior Christy Kobza, said she set her page to where only her friends could view it and she was concerned with what others could see when they searched for her name on the site.
“My privacy settings are so only my friends can see things, and if people are trying to search me, I think it’s just my picture and the network I belong to that they can see,” she said. “They can’t see anything else on my profile.”
According to the article, the three listed privacy settings can be changed through the “privacy settings” section of Facebook.
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