Changing Your Facebook Privacy Settings

For many insurance professionals, having a Facebook profile is a fun, interactive way to keep in touch with clients, family, and friends. But some resist signing up for Facebook because of privacy concerns.

Facebook has made great strides in improving the way your information can be displayed and your profile found. Since the new Timeline format has just gone into place, now is a great time to review your Facebook privacy settings.

Some Default Settings You Should Know About

1. Unless you modify your privacy settings, your photos, status updates, wall posts, and biographical information will be visible to anyone.
2. Your personal profile will be searchable through search engines like Google, if someone should search your name.
3. Your contact information is only visible to your friends.
4. Whenever Facebook notifies you that it has changed its privacy policy, you should take that as a cue to review your privacy settings.

In order to review your privacy settings, log in to your Facebook account. In the upper right-hand corner is a menu indicated by a down arrow. Click it and select “Privacy Settings.”

You will be presented with a screen with a variety of options. If you haven’t changed your privacy settings before, then your page is likely set to Public. Select Custom and then proceed through each menu to customize who can and cannot view your content, status updates, etc.

What If I’m an Admin on My Business’s Page? Am I Protected?

By default, admins on Facebook pages are now private, meaning that those who “like” your business page cannot see that you are an administrator on your page and, therefore, cannot click through to your personal page. However, if they know of you and search your name and you haven’t set it to be “unsearchable” through the Privacy Settings, they can locate your personal page.

So, you should start by going through your privacy settings and protecting your profile from search, if such a thing is important to you.

Additional Resources

There are some terrific resources out there that can help you determine how best to update your Facebook settings and how to go about it. One article that we recommend is “How to Update Your Facebook Privacy Settings” from howstuffworks.com. For extensive information, visit Facebook’s own Privacy help center.