Facebook - Keep yourself safe - Best Practices

by Anthony Weaver

With Facebook it's easy to update your status on any computer and even some phones. That's part of what makes Facebook fun. You could be in the middle of nowhere, but if you have an internet connection, you can update your Facebook.

That's where the danger comes in. As much as we love to update Facebook we should also take steps to keep ourselves safe, find the "best practice", and in the end,  train yourself to do one simple thing when your done... Log out.

There are a few examples that we can glean a small list of best practices when using a foreign computer, a computer other than your own, to update Facebook.

In these stories the names were changed, but what happened was real.

The first instance was a tennis match. Frank had logged into Facebook on his smart phone before a tennis match with his friend George and left the application open. Frank and George played tennis and George tried with all his might. After the game was complete, Frank was off getting some refreshment and a visit to the facilities leaving his phone easy to spot and turn on. With Facebook open and logged in, George updated Frank's Facebook status on oFrank's smart phone, saying Frank lost... badly. Of course this wasn't the case.

The second instance involved Ted. Ted was visiting his friend Skank out of town a couple hours away. Ted jumped on the available computer, logged into Facebook, and knowing Ted, he played some Mafia Wars (a game played through Facebook or MySpace). When he was done Ted didn't log out and left a fish frying in the pan. In just two hours, the drive home from out of town, Ted had come out of the closet proclaiming his love of men. Skank easily walked into Ted's Facebook account, which was already logged in, and updated Ted's status. It was easy for Skank.

The last instance comes from an episode of The Big Bang Theory, where a friends status was updated claiming changes in a relationship because the same password was used for almost every account. Simple as that.

Facebook - Keep yourself safe - Best Practices

1. If you are on a foreign computer (a computer other than yours)
1. Always start with your own browser window.
   
2. Sometimes a friend will tell you just open a new tab, but don't close the window because I'm working on something... open a new window for yourself, not just another tab. Have your own browser window with your own tabs, just for what you're doing.
3. NEVER EVER click the box "Remember me" if it's not your own computer. Save your log-in information on your phone or in your email if you have to, but never... ever... check "Remember me" box on a foreign computer.
   
4. ALWAYS LOG OUT. Always...
1. Never just close the browser window. This does not automatically log you out of Facebook and many other log-in websites.
5. Close all tabs and the web browser you're using windows after logging out.
1. If you're truly paranoid you can erase the browser history before you close the browser window. This depends if the foreign computer allows you to erase the history and how much you trust your friend. If you didn't click the "Remember me" box when you logged in, erasing the browser history shouldn't be necessary.
2. Don't post photos you would want your boss to see
3. Watch out for Wall to Wall comments
1. Everyone can see this
2. If you think your message might be personal? Play it safe... send them a message.
   
4. And... don't use the same password for every account you have. Once you break that password, the world becomes open with your multiple accounts easy to access. 

Honestly, you've been notified. It turns out this is a great joke and I myself will be giving this a good go. Why not? If your dumb enough not to log out of your Facebook account on a foreign computer, then I'm a large piece of poo to take advantage of it and I'm going to have fun with your status. When done right (one can only hope) this can be really funny!

Have fun and be safe on Facebook!