00:00Social media can be an incredible tool for connection, seeing photos of the grandkids,
00:04keeping up with old friends and participating in community groups.
00:08But the terminology of social media privacy settings can feel like a foreign language.
00:13And privacy settings are really important. They control what people can see when they
00:17search your name online. Think of social media privacy like home security. You wouldn't leave
00:23your front door wide open so that strangers can wander into your house,
00:26rifle through your drawers and flick through your photo albums. So there are a few things
00:30that you can do to make sure that you're happy with your level of security.
00:34First up, the golden rule. If you want your social media profile to be private,
00:41the easiest way is to change your social media visibility from public to friends.
00:47In Facebook, for example, you can click your profile picture, find the privacy section,
01:00the privacy checkup section.
01:01Then look for audience and visibility.
01:05This might be in common privacy settings or the privacy checkup section.
01:16Under audience, tap who can see your future posts. Select friends from the list.
01:23This means that only your friends can see what you post from now on.
01:28And here's a cool trick to make sure that strangers can't see your old posts.
01:33On that same screen, tap limit who can see past posts.
01:38This retroactively changes everything you've previously posted on Facebook
01:43to be for your friends' eyes only.
01:47You can also do the same for your videos or reels.
01:55Facebook's privacy checkup option will take you through a number of options,
01:59like a guided home security inspection. You'll find this option under settings and privacy.
02:05It uses clear step-by-step prompts to ask who can see what you share and how people can find
02:13you.
02:14You can also make sure that people won't find your Facebook account if they type your name into Google.
02:20In the privacy checkup, switch off the option labeled,
02:24Do you want search engines outside Facebook to link to your profile?
02:28This gives you total anonymity from random internet searches.
02:33Take five minutes to go through this process.
02:36It blocks strangers from seeing their phone numbers, email addresses or birthday.
02:42Just one last thing. If you are posting comments or pictures in Facebook groups,
02:47your posts may be public. When posting in a Facebook group, look for the globe icon or the padlock icon.
02:55If you see the globe icon, know that even people without a Facebook account can read what you wrote.
03:02And if you do all of these things, you will be in control of your online persona.
03:07So happy posting.
Comments