A Beginner's Guide To Facebook: Choosing The Right Privacy Settings On Facebook

Everyone is worried about their privacy on the web. Those new to Facebook may be especially concerned that the information they share may "fall into the wrong hands". But fear not, Facebook has made it easy to control who can see what you share. You just need to know how to choose the right Facebook privacy settings.

To change the default basic privacy settings on Facebook, login to Facebook and click on Account > Privacy Settings on the upper right corner of the page. This is what the privacy settings page looks like:

There are four privacy control settings you can choose for each information type, and the settings you choose depends on how you want to share that particular category of information.

• Everyone - Your information will become available to all Facebook users, whoever they are and wherever they may be.
  
• Friends of Friends - Your information will be seen only by the people in your friends list and the people in their friends lists.
  
• Friends Only - Your information will be seen only by the people in your friends list. Their friends will not be able to see it.
  
• Custom - You can select specific people or groups of people who can view the information per category.
  

Facebook has recommended privacy settings that you can apply by clicking on Recommended. You can start with that and then work your way to customizing it exactly the way you want it. To use the privacy settings recommended by Facebook, select Recommended then click on Apply These Settings which you can see highlighted in blue below:

Now it's up to you to further customize your privacy settings by category and choose whether you want these information to be available to Everyone, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, or to selected friends or groups of friends only:

• Your status, photos, and posts
• Bio and favorite quotations
• Family and relationships
• Photos and videos you're tagged in
• Religious and political views
• Birthday
• Permission to comment on your posts
• Places you check in to
• Contact information

To do so, click Customize settings shown encircled in red below:

In the page that opens, use the drop down menus beside each information category to select who you want the information to be available to.

If you want the information to be viewable only to specific people or groups of people, click Customize. Custom Privacy settings where you can further control your privacy will then appear.

Now that you know how to set the default basic privacy settings on Facebook, it's time to connect with friends and have some fun!