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How to protect your identity on facebook


How to protect your account on Facebook and Instagram

5 min

Facebook works to provide a safe environment for every user. To maintain this, Facebook has Community Standards and guidelines that inform what is and is not allowed. Facebook quickly responds to anyone who compromises community trust and safety. Violations can immediately result in deleted Pages, content and disabled accounts.

Protect your password

Your Facebook and Instagram passwords should be unique and never shared with anyone. To create a strong password and protect it, follow these tips:

Avoid using anything that's personally identifiable, such as your name, phone number, birthdate or address.

Ensure that it's at least six characters long and use a complex combination of numbers, letters and punctuation marks.

Avoid using common words or your name.

Use a unique password that you're not using anywhere else online.

Never share your password.

For extra security, change your password every six months.

Protect your account

A strong password is a great first step, but as you grow and gain more followers, there are additional steps you can take to protect your Facebook account:

Manage who can see you as a friend on Facebook.

For example, change your privacy setting to only friends of friends. This helps to separate your public life from your personal life.

Remove your personal profile from search engine results.

In the Settings and Privacy section in Facebook, you can control whether or not a search engine will show your profile in its results.

Activate two-factor authentication.

This means you'll have to confirm your identity when logging in from a device that Facebook does not recognise.

Learn more.

Activate and manage your alerts.

Make sure login alerts and approvals are activated so that you're alerted if someone logs in to your account from a different device.

Update your privacy settings.

Make sure that all of your privacy settings are up to date. To run a Privacy Checkup, click on your Facebook profile, then select Privacy Checkup.

Assign different roles to people who manage your Page.

Assign different Page roles to different people to limit the amount of access a person has.

Learn more.

Take action

Your account should represent you, and only you should have access to it. Knowing what signs to look for can help you take swift action.

If you notice any of the following activity, you may have been hacked:

  • Your email or password have changed
  • Your name or birthday have changed
  • Friend requests have been sent to people you don't know
  • Messages have been sent that you didn't write
  • Posts have been made that you didn't create

What to do if you're hacked on Facebook

Here's what you should do if you suspect that someone has hacked or taken over your account:

1.
Secure your account.

Visit facebook.com/hacked immediately to secure your account. Our guided help tool will take you through each step to protect your page from hackers. You will be prompted to change your password and review your recent login activity.

2. Get a security code sent to your email address or phone number.

Facebook has added another layer of protection that you can use to ensure that your account is secure. You can request that we send a security code to your email address or phone number to help us confirm that you are indeed the owner of the account.

To request a security code:

  1. Tap My login info isn't working on the login screen.
  2. Choose either your email address or phone number to have the code sent to you and then tap Send security code.
  3. Enter the 6-digit code you receive, tap Confirm and follow the on-screen instructions.
3.
Report your account.

You should report your account to us if you're unable to recover your account with the security code sent to you. We will do our best to help you access and secure your account so you can continue connecting and sharing with your friends and family.

Here's what you should do if you suspect that someone has hacked or taken over your account:

1. Secure your account.

Visit facebook.com/hacked immediately to secure your account. Our guided help tool will take you through each step to protect your page from hackers. You will be prompted to change your password and review your recent login activity.

2. Get a security code sent to your email address or phone number.

Facebook has added another layer of protection that you can use to ensure that your account is secure. You can request that we send a security code to your email address or phone number to help us confirm that you are indeed the owner of the account.

To request a security code:

  1. Tap My login info isn't working on the login screen.
  2. Choose either your email address or phone number to have the code sent to you and then tap Send security code.
  3. Enter the 6-digit code you receive, tap Confirm and follow the on-screen instructions.
3. Report your account.

You should report your account to us if you're unable to recover your account with the security code sent to you. We will do our best to help you access and secure your account so you can continue connecting and sharing with your friends and family.

What to do if you're hacked on Instagram

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Identity Theft Prevention Tips for Facebook Users

Identity theft protection is a must for all computer users, and that extends to social media such as Facebook. Because of the very nature of social networking sites — where people are encouraged to share personal information — users are automatically at risk of becoming victims of identity theft.

Facebook users should be aware that identity thieves are constantly coming up with new scams aimed at stealing personal data. And oftentimes, that data is publicly accessible and within easy reach.

Here are some tips for identity theft protection and to keep your Facebook profile safe:

1. Don't post your birth date, or at least don't post the year you were born. It might seem like a tactic for people who just want to cling to their 20s for as long as possible, but it actually has a practical use: Your birth date, year included, is a key piece of information to steal your identity.

2. Think twice when you want to purchase Facebook services that require your credit card information. It's best to avoid putting that data on the site.

3. Have boundaries. Avoid revealing where a photo was taken and stop geotagging photos that show exact locations. Be cautious about posting pics that reveal your address or show where you keep valuables in your home.

4. The more you publicly reveal where you are and what you are doing, identity thieves will surely take notice. Delete photos and posts on your timeline that show personally identifiable information.

5. Your name, profile picture, and cover photo are all always "public" and that cannot be changed. From this public information, thieves can create identical Facebook profiles aimed at infecting users' devices with spyware that can steal precious data. Use reputable internet security software on your device to weed out dangerous threats for effective identity theft protection. Also, be extra cautious of downloading free anti-spyware packages, which could be malware in disguise!

Last year the Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement with Facebook to make sure the site took certain privacy steps; that's good news for users concerned about privacy, but you should be your own advocate to prevent identity theft.

For more than one billion people and counting, Facebook has been a venue to connect with old friends, keep in touch over long distances and promote new business ventures. If you use it wisely and with a bit of precaution, Facebook can be a great tool. If not, the bad guys out there may just ruin the fun.

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Identity theft protection is a must for all computer users, and that extends to social media such as Facebook. Because of the very nature of social networking sites — where people are encouraged to share personal information — users are automatically at risk of becoming victims of identity theft.

How to protect personal information on social networks

If you spend a lot of time on social networks, then most likely you leave a lot of personal information on the Internet. Often, in various social media accounts, we list our full names, schools, organizations where we work, relatives and friends, places where we live or often visit, our hobbies and interests, political views, musical preferences, and so on.

All of this information can be used against us. If scammers have your personal details, they can impersonate you and deceive your friends or colleagues in order to get money or confidential information from them. They may also use information from your social media accounts to brute-force security questions on banking systems or dating sites, steal online accounts, or stalk you.

Fortunately, a few quick and easy steps below will help you keep your personal information safe while still using social media.

1. Use strong and unique passwords

Protect every social media account with an unguessable or hackable password. A password is considered strong if it contains at least 12 characters, including upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters. The strongest passwords are made up of random combinations of these characters. Learn more about how to create passwords that are nearly impossible to crack.

Use a unique password for each account. Learn more about why you shouldn't use the same or identical passwords for different accounts. Don't worry about having to deal with a lot of difficult to remember and non-repeating passwords. Use a password manager to remember and store them securely.

2. Add a second layer of protection

Unfortunately, even the strongest password can be stolen or hacked. Therefore, it is important to use two-factor authentication to secure your social media accounts. Using two-factor authentication means that in addition to entering a password, you need to verify your identity in an additional way.

The most secure way to use two-factor authentication involves installing a special application on your smartphone to generate temporary numeric codes. To access your social network account, you will need to enter such a code immediately after entering your password. Learn more about how to secure your accounts with two-factor authentication.

3. Update your software regularly

In a world where cybercriminals are increasingly exploiting vulnerabilities in various applications installed on people's devices, it's important to keep your software up to date. The device with which you access social networks must have the latest version of the operating system installed. If you are using a computer or mobile device, make sure your antivirus is enabled and set to update automatically.

If you're accessing social networks through a browser instead of an app, make sure it's up to date. If you use social media apps on your mobile device, update them frequently.

4. Only add people you know personally as friends

It's simple: the more people you connect with, the more difficult it is to control what happens to the personal information you share on social networks. Unless you have a good reason to keep your social media accounts public, limit who can see your posts and photos. Learn more about how to do it on Instagram and Twitter.

Check your social media followings regularly. Delete people you don't trust or don't talk to anymore. If a user asks you for personal information, harasses you, or does any other suspicious activity, block their profile and report them.

5. Adjust your privacy settings

Social networks owe their popularity to the fact that they make posts and photos of users available to an almost unlimited number of people around the world. Luckily, these platforms allow you to adjust your privacy settings to control what other people see and know about you. For example, most social networks allow you to restrict who can view your profile, block users, share photos only with certain people, and so on. Learn these settings and use them to give yourself the best privacy. Learn more about how to manage your privacy settings on Instagram and Twitter.

6. Do not store personal information on social networks

Social networks are interested in you adding as much information about yourself to your profiles as possible, including to help other users find you. What school did you attend? Are you married? Do your relatives have accounts? This information allows you to create your portrait in a social network and is of great interest to intruders.

Limit the amount of personal information you share online, including biographical information, family ties, and photographs. Never post photos of identification documents, concert tickets, or boarding passes. Think ahead and remember that once something is posted online, it's almost impossible to undo the action or know for sure who has access to that information.

7. Do not share your location

Social media users are often easy targets for scammers when they tell everyone where they are and where they often go. Many users share their location on social networks by using the check-in feature, as well as posting photos or talking about the places they visit.

If your privacy and personal safety are important to you, do not tell strangers where you are. Turn off sharing your device's location and adjust your social media privacy settings so they don't track your location. Don't tag your location on social media or post photos that show where you are until you leave the place.

8. Do not use social media profiles to register or log into other sites.

When you create your next account on a service or a new platform on the Internet, it's often tempting to click "Login with Facebook." But by doing this, you are trusting the third-party site with your Facebook credentials. Even in terms of statistics, this makes your account more likely to be hacked. You also give Facebook access to even more of your personal data. Therefore, never access other sites through social media accounts.

9. Don't give other apps access to your accounts

Most users don't know how many apps or sites they have "linked" to their social media accounts. By answering a test that your friends have shared on Facebook, or by clicking "Find out what celebrity you look like," you grant access to your account to another application or service. These apps can access your friends list, profile photos, date of birth, address, etc.

Regularly check the list of third-party apps and services that have access to your social media accounts. Remove any obsolete, suspicious or unnecessary services.

10. Safe Use of Public and Shared Devices

Signing into social media accounts on public devices (in public places) and devices you share with other people always puts your personal information at risk. Some of these threats can be minimized, but they cannot be completely eliminated. When using a public digital device to sign in to social media at a library, school, or airport, always sign out of your account and, if possible, log out or restart your device.

Avoid logging in to social networks on shared computers in internet cafes. Keyloggers (keyloggers) or other spyware may be installed on them. If you urgently need to log into a social network account in an Internet cafe, enable two-factor authentication to protect your account, and after completing work, change the password for this account from another computer as soon as possible.

11. Be careful with links

One of the main rules of digital security is to never click on links from people you don't know or don't fully trust. This rule also applies to social media links. A malicious link can be sent in a private message or placed in a comment below a photo or status update. If you don't know where a link leads, it's best not to follow it.

You can see exactly where the link goes by hovering your mouse over it. Unfortunately, this action cannot be performed on mobile devices.

12. Delete accounts you don't use

Social networks evolve and newer platforms often replace old ones. But in chasing trends, it's important to remember all the accounts you've created and delete the ones you no longer use. It is easier for hackers to stealthily break into accounts that you do not log into or that you have long forgotten about.

A hacked account and the information it contains can be used to hack into other accounts or impersonate you. When you close old accounts, please try (where this option is available) to also delete all information about you that is stored in this service. One of the benefits of a password manager is that it makes it easy to keep track of all the accounts you create.

Security and personal data protection on Facebook

Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with your friends. However, you should be very careful with the information you disclose... just in case it falls into the wrong hands.

How to use Facebook safely

Cybercriminals use a wide range of financial scams to try and steal your money.

In addition, they place false friend requests in order to steal the user's personal information. Therefore, you should be careful when using Facebook.

Here are some tips to help you do it safely:

Check every Facebook contact

Make sure the person you're talking to is who you think they are. Try to verify his identity.

Protect your banking and financial information

Never reveal your bank accounts, credit and debit cards, or other financial information< on Facebook.

Be careful of strangers

Don't friend or accept friend requests from people you don't know.

Protect your password

Extra protection for your password is a vital element of your Facebook security:

Create a strong password that is hard to guess