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, rifle through your drawers
00:27and flick through your photo albums. So there are a few things that you can do to make sure that
00:32you're happy with your level of security. First up, the golden rule. If you want your social media
00:39profile to be private, the easiest way is to change your social media visibility from public
00:45to friends. In Facebook, for example, you can click your profile picture, find the privacy section,
00:59click your profile. Then look for audience and visibility. This might be in common privacy settings
01:07or the privacy checkup section.
01:16Under audience, tap who can see your future posts. Select friends from the list. This means that only your
01:25friends can see what you post from now on. And here's a cool trick to make sure that strangers can't
01:31see your
01:32old posts. On that same screen, tap limit who can see past posts. This retroactively changes everything
01:40you've previously posted on Facebook to be for your friend's eyes only. You can also do the same for
01:49your videos or reels. Facebook'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. It uses clear
02:07step by step prompts to ask who can see what you share and how people can find you. You can
02:14also make sure
02:15that people won't find your Facebook account if they type your name into Google. In the privacy checkup,
02:22switch off the option labeled Do you want search engines outside Facebook to link to your profile?
02:28This gives you total anonymity from random internet searches. Take 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, your posts may be public.
02:49When posting in a Facebook group, look for the globe icon or the padlock icon. If you see the globe
02:57icon,
02:58know that even people without a Facebook account can read what you wrote. And if you do all of these
03:04things, you will be in control of your online persona. So happy posting.
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