Choose who sees when you connect
One of the most important points of privacy in social networks is that others can see if you are connected or not. It can even affect your security. Why do we say this? It is a reality that there are bots on platforms such as Facebook and among their objectives may be sending false links. If such an account sees that you are online, it could take the opportunity to interact and put your security at risk.
But luckily you can make some adjustments to improve privacy. One of them is allowing or not allowing them to know when you connect to Facebook. But not only that, but you can choose who has this information and who doesn’t. It is very useful to avoid just what we have explained about bots. You can let your family and close friends know when you’re online, but not everyone else.
How can you do it? The first thing is to enter your Facebook account. At the top you will see the Messenger icon and you have to click on the three dots to enter the menu. You will see that by default it says “Active” Status: ACTIVATED. You have to click there to modify it. A new screen like the one you see below will appear.
You will be able to simply check or uncheck the box to appear as active, but you can also hit Edit to appear or not appear for certain contacts. That’s just where you can use this little tweak to improve your privacy. Maybe you want to appear online to contacts you trust, but not to others, for example.
Even if you appear offline, you will be able to use Facebook Messenger without problems. You will only increase your privacy so that other contacts do not know if you are there or not.
Reducing information improves privacy
To improve privacy on social networks like Facebook, something key is reduce information. Avoid exposing more data than is actually necessary. For example, you should not put your personal number or email address. You should also take care of data such as the workplace, studies, etc.
All this can end up in the wrong hands. They could use it to start sending you personalized advertising, but also use that information to launch Phishing attacks and get to steal your passwords or personal data. This is something that you should keep in mind in any social network that you use.
Therefore, as you can see, you can improve your privacy on Facebook if you choose who can see when you are connected or not. This can help you prevent certain attacks, such as dangerous links sent by bots. In addition, you can always avoid intruders on social networks and not have problems.