Facebook cautions

     With all of the controversy over Facebook's privacy issues and the recent news of the two men being arrest for breaking in the homes of people who they knew were not home thanks to Facebook status updates.  You might be asking yourself, how can I reap the benefits of Facebook and still remain safe on the internet.

     There are a few basic steps. First, make sure that all of your updates are only being seen by your friends and not all of the general public. For this to work, you can't be one of those people who just accepts a friend request from anyone just to make yourself look more popular. When posting an update on Facebook, you should look for a small lock symbol

      If you see the lock, that means that your posts are set to private. Next, don't put anything on Facebook that you consider to be private, such as your phone number and date of birth.  Your good friends and family should already know your phone number and birthday.  We all see the great photos and status updates from our friends and family when they are on vacation and visiting places far from home, but keep in mind that this is only advertising to people that you are not home and that your house is likely empty.  Even broadcasting an evening out with your spouse could potentially let people know that your kids may be home alone.

     One of the latest dangers on Facebook are the many viruses being spread through links to supposed videos from your friends. These links will often be a shortened URL of some sort. Do yourself a favor when you see a video link from a friend and wait a while, often times you will see posts from the person from whom the link came from telling everyone not to click the link because they did not send it.

     And lastly, keep in mind that anything and everything that you put into social media sites can and often times will be seen by a current or future employer.  Be smart and think before posting questionable photos and comments.

Have a question? email me at thecommongeek@gmx.com

Brought to you by Dennis Keefe, The Common Geek