4 things you shouldn’t make public on your Facebook account

This article is over 8 years old. As such it has been archived and we have an updated version of this article here.

Okay so your photos and your status updates are “Friends Only” which of course they always should be, all of the time.

Not sure how to make everything friends only and get your privacy settings right? It’s okay, we have an article here for you.

But there are other things that shouldn’t be visible to the public as well. Here we list 4 things that many people still make public on their Facebook (and other social media) accounts, but they really should be private, or better yet, not on there at all.

Your D.O.B

Okay so you have to tell Facebook how old you are so they know you’re old enough to use the site. But make sure this information is set to Friends Only. Not only that, but we also recommend keeping your birth year set to Only Me. After all, your friends don’t really need to know how old you’re getting!

Your DOB is an essential and integral part of your personal information, and contributes to the “security questions” to many online and offline accounts, including your bank! Thus keeping this information away from strangers is important.

The privacy settings for your Date of Birth can be found in your About section under Basic Info.

Sponsored Content. Continued below...

Your friends list

Did you know that if you have a public friends list then you are a prime target for a Facebook cloning scam. These scammers clone your account by creating a new account with your profile picture and Facebook account name. They then go to your friends list and start requesting friendships to your contacts, trying to lure them into believing it’s you!

You can learn more about Facebook cloning scams here but its potentially damaging to both you and your friends if they lure people into accepting.

Your address

Okay, we know your address isn’t set to public. You’re not that naïve.

But we thought we’d include it here, mainly because it really shouldn’t be on Facebook AT ALL, and we know many people do include it.

So we hope the reasons for not having your address public are self-evident, but even having it as Friends Only or Only Me are not a good enough justification. Despite Facebook having a place to add your address, there really is no good reason why they need it. If a scammer compromises a friends account, or your account, they could obtain your address and that is the last thing you want a scammer knowing.

Sponsored Content. Continued below...

Your place of work

Facebook and the professional lives of its users are becoming increasingly intertwined, and [in many cases] this really isn’t a good thing. The number of people getting fired from their jobs because of what they post on Facebook is forever increasing, and the last thing you want is for some ill-thought out post getting reported to your place of work.

The business world is slowly getting a handle on how to mediate social media, and as a result increasing number of employers are forcing their employees to sign contracts that include social media policies that include not posting things that will reflect poorly on them.

Whilst some people are always going to post regrettable content on Facebook, you can try and contain the damage it does by ensuring that people who see it don’t know where you work. Possibly.

It’s time to get over the illusion that just because you use Facebook for your own personal reasons, it cannot impact your professional life. Things that people say over a keyboard via their personal social media accounts are getting them into trouble, and it’s happening more frequently than ever before.

Therefore, either don’t include your workplace on Facebook at all, or if you do, keep it Friends Only.

Use Facebook for your professional life? Get to grips with Facebook Lists, or consider using a separate account.