When the president of the United States of America gave a ‘Back to School’ speech this year, he warned the children to be careful when using Facebook, the world’s biggest social networking website.

Nearly one-third of the employers use Facebook to check out about you before hiring you. So if you are going to post pictures of your ‘other ‘side on this public network it might cost you your dream job and a fat pay check. So think before you act.

However there are so many little things you can do to protect yourself at Facebook. Most non-tech savvy people don’t understand these features. So, they are explained in simple terms to you below:

i) Make Different Lists of Persons

Whenever you add someone to your Facebook Contacts List, categorize them as Work, Family or Friends. Even Friends can be categorized as Acquaintances, for those you are not very close with and friends, for those whom you share a close relationship with. This is very important as then you can fix who will view what and who will not have access to your personal stuff.

ii) Settings of Privacy

At the top right corner, you have a tab called ‘Settings‘. Click this and you will get the option ‘Privacy Settings’. When you click on that, you can set who can see what on your Facebook profile. For example, when you set ‘Only Friends’, only your friends can view it, ‘My Networks and Friends’ allows anyone in your network to view it.

iii) Address and Phone Number

When you click on ‘Privacy Settings, in the ‘Settings’ button, you will come across a tab called ‘Contact Information’. Click on it. You can allow/ block people whom you want/ don’t want to view this information.

iv) Search

Sometimes you just don’t want others to catch you on Facebook especially some old disgusting school friends and nosy parkers from office. For this, you can click on settings on the main Facebook homepage. Then click ‘Search’. You then land on a ‘Search Privacy’ page where you can set who can find you on Facebook. You can click on ‘Friends of Friends’, ‘My Networks and Friends’ or ‘Only Friends’ depending on the level of privacy you want to maintain. Also you can control what will show up when your profile shows up in search.

v) Don’t Share Personal Information with unknown applications

There are umpteen numbers of quizzes and games on Facebook that can access your personal information and also your friend’s personal information. You can put a stop to this. Take the mouse over to ‘Settings’ tab and choose ‘Privacy Settings’ and click it. Then click ‘Applications’ and click on the tab that says ‘Settings’. Then you can choose what your friends can view and cannot view about you. This only sets for your friend’s applications. For the applications you are using, this is not applicable. So, it would be best to remove those ones you are not using.

These five steps can surely create a much better and safer environment for you to network and chill-out on Facebook.