Five Facebook Settings You Need to Use

How well do you control your Facebook profiles? Here are five settings the social network has equipped itself with, and can be used to strengthen your online account security and privacy.

Social media sites have been an integral part of our online life nowadays, and Facebook is one anybody can’t miss out on. With these settings, you can raise your privacy and security stakes, giving you a more peaceful mind in the long run.

Profile link to search engines

Did you know that you can turn off your listings on search engines like Google and Yahoo? Here’s a fact: When you search for your name online, the first on every listing would probably be your social media accounts. To prevent people from looking you up on the web, go to Settings > Privacy. Click on “Do you want other search engines to link to your timeline?”, and uncheck the box that is in it.

Review Tagged Posts and Photos

Reviewing post and photo tags before they show up on your profile can be really helpful, especially when getting rid of those few pictures from a party you wouldn’t want your bosses, who happens to be your Facebook friends, can see. To activate, go to Settings > Timeline and Tagging and click on the “Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your timeline?” option. Once enabled, you will have to manually approve all tagged posts before they appear on your wall, which can be accessed through your activity log.

Login approvals and Code Generators

If you want to keep your account secured and you linked your mobile number with your account, login approvals are the way to go. Once activated, a code will be sent to your registered mobile number when logging in unknown or untrusted browsers.

You can also opt to bring the codes with you anywhere via the Code Generator. It provides ten predetermined codes that you can use to login to your account.

Trusted Contacts

Besides code generators and two-step authentication, another way to further secure your account is to register a trusted contact, which serves as a key when you forget your Facebook account password and you can’t get into your email to reset it.

How does this work? In case you get locked out of your account, you can choose the trusted friends option to get a code to reset your password. Once you have activated a reset via trusted friends, you will be given a special URL which contains a special code only they can see. You need to call up any of your trusted friends and send them the URL, and they need to revert back the special code for you to unlock your account and reset your passcode.

To manage your trusted contacts, go to Settings > Security > Trusted Contacts. While this may be really helpful, keep in mind that you only give the special privilege to family members and close friends.

Email notifications

Does your inbox pile up tons of Facebook emails notifying you of comments, friend requests, likes, and game reminders? You can opt out of future emails from the social networking site. To disable them, go to Settings > Notifications > Email to unsubscribe from digests and feeds you do not need.

That wraps up our list of Facebook settings you’re probably not using, and we hope that we helped you putting up a better defense against the bad elements. Is a setting not on the list? Drop your recommendations down the comments section below.