Over the weekend, Facebook users discovered a number of dummy accounts made under their names. Although it was initially thought that students and alumni from certain universities are the main targets, a number of people outside of these universities also reported that they have also seen clone accounts of themselves.
[READ: Fake Facebook accounts are on the rise—and DOJ is already ordering an investigation]
While investigations by the Department of Justice and National Bureau of Investigation are ongoing, now’s a good time to check just how much of your information is at risk—especially with various privacy and security issues on Facebook right now. If you’re not sure where to start, here’s a quick guide to help you make your account secure.
Check your logins
When checking the security of your account, start with your login history. To see a full list of the devices used to access your Facebook account, select Settings from the drop-down menu on your profile, click on the Security and Login tab and check the “Where You’re Logged In” section.
To ensure that you’re only accessing your account through devices that you own, use the “Log out of all sessions” option on the bottom-right. You can also keep track of any future logins by turning on alerts and notifications for any logins made through devices or browsers you don’t normally use by scrolling down to the “Get alerts about unrecognized logins” section.
Limit the people who can see your posts
The next step to securing your account is to make sure the content you share on Facebook can only be seen by people you trust. Visit the Privacy Settings and Tools tab at the Settings page, and limit who can see your past and future posts under the “Your Activity” tab to your friends list.
Aside from limiting the audience of your Facebook content, your privacy settings allow you to control how people can find your account and limit who can access information such as your email address or mobile number.
Review posts that you’ve been tagged in
While you can control who can view your posts on Facebook, you can’t control what other people might post about you. The next best thing you can do is limit who can see posts you’re tagged in or who can post to your timeline.
To do this, visit the Timeline and Tagging tab on the Settings page. You can also control future posts that you’re tagged in by turning on the Review settings in the same tab, which allows you to check content you get tagged in and decide if you want to make it accessible on your timeline.
If you want to check if any of your changes are effective, Facebook has a function that lets you view what your account looks like to the public. Simply select the “Review what other people see on your timeline” under the Timeline and Tagging tab, or by clicking the dropdown menu on your profile page.
Remove apps that don’t need to be linked to your account
In the past, you might have linked your Facebook account to applications like mobile games or online quizzes without thinking too much of it—but what you may not know is that these apps can lay claim to your profile and even run the risk of exposing sensitive information to a third party.
Header photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
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