I was going through my Facebook Account a settings as everyone should be doing and found a few new settings and options I did not know about. Facebook Account settings may be accessed through the top right of any Facebook page once you are logged in. Some changes I made today:

• Password – you should change your Facebook password at least every 90 days and use a complex password: 8 or more characters, upper case, lower case, numbers, and symbols.
• Privacy – I set everything to Friends only you can click customize to deny the option to individual friends or a list of friends. Often Facebook resets some of these or adds new ones with the default privacy setting of “Everyone” which is not a privacy setting at all.
• Account Security – I don’t know how I missed this but Facebook now allows “Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible”. This should be enabled by EVERYONE. I don’t know why it is not enabled by default.
• Account Security – Enable the option: when a new computer logs in send me an email. Also go through the list of systems allowed on Facebook. Remove all those that you do not use or do not remember by clicking Remove.

These were all the usual changes I make but I found a new link towards the bottom: Download Your Information

Clicking the link to learn more allows Facebook to prepare a download of your entire profile. Allow Facebook to do this and wait for an email to come in saying your download is ready. You will have to verify your password and then be able to download a zip file with your entire profile. Go through this file and see everything that is available about you. Ensure you keep this file safe and delete it when you are done browsing as it contains your entire profile.

I signed up for Facebook in College and my history goes back to 2006. Go through the file and see if you every posted anything you did not want. Now it may be too late to remove it but it should at least make you think before you post in the future.

Till next time,

Jorge Orchilles