Best tips to make your Facebook account secure and cleaner
Facebook is, of course the best medium to get to know the world around you. And expand your social horizon. But, isn't it a good idea to clean it up once in a while? Reviewing your security settings and privacy loopholes will in effect stop certain bad elements from accessing your intimate details. Let us go through a few small tips to make your Facebook account a bit cleaner and safer.
Do you have a large number of Facebook friends you practically do not know? There are some casual contacts you made your friends years ago. Now, over the time - you may no longer want them to be part of your internal circle with access to your all your intimate details. So, that means it's time now to do some clean up work on your Facebook account. Here are a few tips on how to do it.# Tip 1. Check your privacy settings
Facebook offers variety of ways to control who has access to your time line. On your desktop, check the padlock icon at the top right corner. If you are on your smartphone, navigate to the menu, then Account Settings.
The thing you need to search is Who can see my posts?. Definitely, you would not want the entire Facebook family to be able to see some of your intimate thoughts. Change it to Friends rather than making it public. There is an option to exclude certain individuals, or groups from being able to check your time line. 
Check the Time line and tagging in your account settings. You cannot let anyone to tag you in any post they would feel free to, right? Make it a point get the tags approved by you before they go public.#Tip 2. Make your account secure
Remember your social life, nay - whole of your digital life revolves around passwords. There are a few services you have logged in via Facebook. Maybe it was just one time for some of your requirement for the time being. Though the service is not needed anymore - maybe never used again after that ONE time. But your Facebook connection with the service stays on. If it is compromised for some or other reason, all of your digital life will be compromised.
Get rid of those apps and games that are linked to your Facebook account. Make it a point to check the apps linked to your account. Activate the Login Approvals. That will result in you having to enter a number when you are logging on from a new device. The number will be sent to your phone and you will not be able to login unless you type in the correct number. The setting is available under Security account settings. It is something like the OTP you need to enter when performing banking transactions. 
Not to be worried about. If you are using only a couple of devices, you will do it once and no need to worry about it anymore. But, it will prevent anyone with your password to access your account.#Tip 3. Have a say on the data you get
You may not wish to see someone's posts on your news feed. You can disable an individual, or group from showing up on your news feed. News feed preferences is what you need to look out for. You should get this option at the top right corner on desktop and on your Android app. You can find it at the lower right on iPhone app. You can set a few friends to show up on top of your news feed. You may also hide someone's posts completely off from showing up. This will help you save your data by avoiding the unnecessary feeds from cropping up on your news feed.
Another way to secure your data from being wasted is to prevent videos from playing automatically. Go to App settings and then locate Autoplay.Turn it off. You can play the video only of you want to. On your iPhone, you can find this option under Videos and Photos. #Tip 4. Need all those friends? Unfriend some
Well, agreed - Facebook is all about making new friends. But, do you really need all of them? Do you really interact with all of them? I presume, no. So, what is the use of having them on your friend list?
Make it a point to review your friends list periodically. Unfriend those who are not in contact anymore. Remove those who are not in your close circle - either personally, or digitally. If you do not want to offend someone by Unfriending him/her, mark them as Acquaintances or Restricted. Marking them as Acquaintances will prevent them from showing up on your news feed. Restricted members will not be able access any of your posts except those published as Public. This would be the same as Unfriending someone, but the concerned person will not know it.
You can also create custom groups. Create groups like Co workers, School friends etc. You can then add friends to the group based on your relationship. You can also add the same person in multiple groups. To do that, find Friends on the left side of your news feed. Click on More Next to Friends. Please note that you will need to perform these actions on your desktop. Mobile apps have limited functionality in this context. However, needless to say, the changes made on desktop will reflect on your app.#Tip 5. The last days
Well, here is how you can take your Facebook account to its logical end.... with your death, I mean. Designate some of your friends as Trusted contacts. If, for any reason your account gets locked - these trusted contacts will be helpful in getting it unblocked. With Facebook having a keen eye on the security issues of late, it would indeed be a best tip. 
And coming back to your death ( well, that's something inevitable), won't you wish to see someone taking proper care of your Facebook account once you are gone? You can do it. You just need to designate someone as Legacy Contact. It would be advisable to designate a family member as the Legacy Contact. They will not be able to post on your behalf, but they can manage new friend requests. They can also take some actions on your behalf on your death.
#Tip 6. Use the browser extensions
The social networking sites do track you once you sign up with them. They keep an eye on your activity, and thus start sending you annoying messages.
As for Facebook, once you like a Facebook page of a particular product, the page tracks your details from the data you have shared on the site. Then you are followed by y be product or brand. There are certain browser extensions that help you get rid of such annoyance.
Disconnect is one such extension that helps you stay private on Chrome. It is a Chrome extension that lets you like a product, or comment on a post without having to worry about the brand following you. The extension is available for Firefox as well. It helps you stay safe by having the social network not able to track you.
The extension ( add-on, in case of Firefox) works equally well with all social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google +.Now, it's over to you....
Facebook is indeed a great way to stay connected to your friends or near and dear ones. But, being a publicly searchable site, it can also have certain adverse effects on your privacy. Facebook has a few nifty tools to change your privacy settings and keep your account secure. However, please note that these privacy policies and settings keep changing from time to time. If you come across any such features, or tips that may make your Facebook account more secure, you are welcome to share your ideas here.
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