10 Tips to protect your privacy on Facebook

This set of tips for Facebook privacy settings shows you how to take full control of your profile, applications, contact details and wall posts under the latest version of Facebook.

These 10 tips are all you need to block prying eyes from your personal profile.

1. Create Friends Lists

Friends Lists allow you to filter Facebook content more easily. Fastest way to create a list: click 'Home' on the main menu bar, then 'Friends' in the sidebar on the left. You'll see the 'Create a List' button at the top of the page. Enter a name for your list – 'Work' or 'Mates', for example - and select friends to add to it.

2. Add people to existing lists

As well as adding people to a list when it's first created you can select and add them after. Click Account > Edit Friends then click 'All Connections'. You'll see your entire list of friends, with an 'Add to List' button next to each. You can also add new friends to lists when inviting them or accepting invitations.

CHOOSE YOUR FRIENDS: Friends Lists are your friends. Both literally and metaphorically. Use them to control your privacy settings

3. Protect Facebook status updates

By default, Facebook has three levels of privacy: Friends, Friends of Friends and Everyone. Everything you can see on your Facebook page, from wall posts to photos is restricted to one of these groups. But, you can also exclude people from, seeing content using lists.

Try this: go to 'View my Profile' and go to your Wall. Type in a status update but, before posting it, click the Privacy menu button. It looks like a padlock with an arrow next to it. Choose 'Customise'. In the 'Hide This From' box and type the name of a list. Click OK and your update will be hidden from all the folks in that list...

4. Hide Facebook Wall posts

To hide wall posts from a list, go to Account > Privacy Settings and click 'Profile Information'. There are four entries that affect wall posts, 'Posts by Me', 'Posts by Friends' and 'Comments on Posts' can be filtered by list. Click the Privacy drop down next to an item and choose 'Customise'. Type the name of the list in the 'Hide this From...' box.

CLEAN THE WALL: You can't control what your friends say on your Facebook wall, but you can hide posts from sensitive eyes

5. Prevent Facebook notification spam

There are few things more intrusive than applications that spam you automatically every time they update. The next time someone's annoying Farmville update or Mafia Wars notification appears in your feed, move your cursor over the post. A 'Hide' link appears. When you click it, you'll be given the option to hide all posts from the chosen application or even from that specific friend.

6. Stop embarrassing photo tags

You can't stop people tagging photos of you drunkenly dancing the conga, but you can stop others from seeing the tag. Go to the Privacy Settings section again and choose 'Profile Information'. Next to 'Photos and videos of me' choose 'Custom' from the drop down, then choose 'Only me' from the 'Make this visible to' menu.

NO TAGS: Your boss probably won't be impressed by photos of you passed out in a pool of your own fluids - so hide picture tags from your friends

7. Go invisible

Did that bloke who used to flick spitballs at you in Double Physics find you on Facebook and send you a friend request? This could have been prevented if you'd removed yourself from searches. In Privacy Settings, go to 'Search'. You can configure this so only your current friends can find you.

8. Remove your Facebook profile from search engines

What if your old nemesis is more persistent, turning to Google next to find your Facebook listing? No worries. In the very same 'Search' section of Privacy Settings, untick the box labelled 'Allow' in 'Public Search Results'. Give it a few days and your Facebook profile will quietly disappear from search engines.

SEARCH SETTINGS: You can preview how your profile will appear to people searching for you using Google or Bing - or block search altogether

9. Block intrusive applications

Some applications - including apps that only your friends have installed - use your image and even your profile data in updates. Stop 'em from accessing your information by going to Privacy Settings and choosing "Applications and Websites". The crucial configuration tools are in "What your friends can share about you". The list of available data is a bit unnerving - but don't worry, untick any entry and your info will stay private.

10. Hide your Facebook contact details

As with the majority of Privacy Settings, you can choose to hide certain contact details from specified lists of people. For example, if you don't want work colleagues to see your home number, first make a Friends List of the folks you want to exclude. Go to 'Contact Details' in Privacy setting. Choose 'Other Phone' and 'Custom' to hide the number from that list.

CONTACT MANAGEMENT: Facebook encourages you to enter every contact address you have... Fortunately, you can restrict visibility to a privileged few

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Read more: http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/10-tips-to-protect-your-privacy-on-facebook-682955#ixzz0mwLsTH6W

Tag Friends in Your Facebook Status and Posts

Tagging is one of the most popular features on Facebook, it enables you to identify and reference people in photos, videos and notes. Another way to tag people and other things you're connected to on Facebook is through your status updates and posts. It allows you to let other people know who and what you're talking about. It includes referencing friends, groups or even events they are attending — for instance, posting "Grabbing lunch with Meredith Chin" or "I'm heading to Starbucks Coffee Company — anyone want some coffee?

If you want to add a friend's name to something you are posting, just include the "@" symbol before your friend's name. As you type the name of what you would like to reference, a drop-down menu will appear that allows you to choose from your list of friends. Soon, you'll be able to tag friends from applications as well. The "@" symbol will not be displayed in the published status update or post after you've added your tags.

Friends you tag in your status updates will receive a notification and a Wall post linking them to your post. They also will have the option to remove tags of themselves from your posts. Tagging your status updates and others posts allows you to share in a more meaningful and engaging way, and connect with even more people.

http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=109765592130

How To Create All Those Sweet Little Symbols on Facebook

Do you envy that cute little heart (♥) symbol or that cool music note (♪♫) on your friend's status message. If you are one of those people who don't know how to create special symbols and characters with your keyboard, then this is for you. Well, it’s pretty simple and you don't have to be a hard core techie to do it. Here's how:

Just press the ‘alt’ key and then type a number code on the numeric keypad (the number pad on the right hand side of the keyboard). If you’re on a laptop, you have to press ‘NumLk’ (Number Lock) first.

Below are a few alt codes:
Hold ‘alt’ then press 1 – ☺
Hold ‘alt’ then press 2 – ☻
Hold ‘alt’ then press 3 – ♥
Hold ‘alt’ then press 4 – ♦
Hold ‘alt’ then press 5 – ♣
Hold ‘alt’ then press 6 – ♠
Hold ‘alt’ then press 7 – •
Hold ‘alt’ then press 8 – ◘
Hold ‘alt’ then press 9 – ○
Hold ‘alt’ then press 10 – ◙
Hold ‘alt’ then press 11 – ♂
Hold ‘alt’ then press 12 – ♀
Hold ‘alt’ then press 13 – ♪
Hold ‘alt’ then press 14 – ♫
Hold ‘alt’ then press 15 – ☼
Hold ‘alt’ then press 16 – ►
Hold ‘alt’ then press 17 – ◄
Hold ‘alt’ then press 18 – ↕
Hold ‘alt’ then press 19 – ‼ (it’s one character!)
Hold ‘alt’ then press 20 – ¶

Enjoy these alt codes and special characters!