In order to make the user experience as safe as possible, Facebook is regularly assessing and making updates to its privacy policies and user privacy settings. Just recently, Facebook did a major overhaul of its privacy settings options. These changes have a huge effect on how you share your information, and on how accessible that information is to others. Therefore, for your own protection, you need to understand how to use Facebook privacy settings to your best advantage. Here is a guide to what you need to know about Facebook privacy settings.

Tagging

You are now able to tag people who are not your facebook “friends” in your posts, as well as pages you don’t “like.” Although this can be a convenient feature, it can also present some privacy issues: like, do you really want strangers (or non-friends) tagging you in photos, or talking about you in their posts?

Tag Screening

Fortunately, you must now approve tags before they can go into effect. Make use of this tagging tool to ensure privacy on your terms, and to avoid any having any embarrassing or unwanted photos or posts published automatically on your profile.

Your Posting Audience

This new feature allows you to make a decision as to who can see your posts, and you can decide as you write each post in question. For example, you can opt to display a specific post only to friends, friends of friends, or to the general public. Additionally, you can create lists to categorize your friends and make choosing your posting audience easy (similar to Google+ Circles).

Removing Photo Tags

It used to be that detagging yourself from a photo simply meant that the photo was no longer included in your profile. Now you have even more options, including requesting that the person who uploaded the photo take it down, and blocking the photo uploader altogether.

“View Profile As” Feature

This enables you to plug anyone’s name (friend or not) in and see exactly what that person sees when they attempt to view your profile. This can be extremely handy when it comes to tweaking your privacy settings to perfection. For example, if you know that a potential employer is on Facebook, you can view your profile as that employer in order to see exactly what pictures and posts the employer is privy to. This can save you a lot of embarrassment (and possibly a job) down the line.

The new Facebook privacy options are a great enhancement to Facebook, but only if you use them Make it a point to get familiar with these great features in order to make the most of your Facebook experience, and to protect yourself in the process.

About the Author: Novella Matteo is a professional writer and blogger with a passion for social networking AND privacy. She enjoys technology and often incorporates email fax services and other online document solutions into her day to day business and life projects.