Yet, the site’s ubiquity comes with a price. Facebook profits off of ads using information gathered by users, and stories about hackers getting access to information shared by users is an all-too common story. If used without a healthy dose of caution and skepticism, Facebook can be a dangerous place. Fortunately, with a handful of good habits and practices, you can keep your privacy while still enjoying this social platform:

1. Keep Login Information To Yourself

This is a universal rule when it comes to accounts – don’t disclose which addresses or passwords you use for your social media profiles. While it is important to make your passwords difficult to guess, it’s just as important to exercise vigilance when you’re not using your regular trusted devices to login. Whether you’re using a company computer or your girlfriend’s laptop, you lose a little more control over your data every time you login on a device that isn’t yours. While there’s nothing wrong with using your significant other’s smartphone to update your profile picture, just be careful with who you trust with that information.

2. Be Careful With Friend Requests

In real life, there’s probably only a few dozen people we’d consider friends or acquaintances. That’s not the case on Facebook – you could have thousands of “friends” that you only know tangentially, whether they’re old classmates or relatives or simply people you met while on vacation. While this is great for keeping tabs on people outside your immediate social circle, it also means you may accept requests from less than trustworthy people.

Some users have created fake Facebook profiles for many nefarious purposes, such as stalking, threatening and harassing people. Honestly, there are many ways someone could abuse the info you share on Facebook, so it’s best to only accept requests from people you personally know. Before you do, be sure their photos match their name, that they have at least some mutual friends, and know something personal about them (such as a sibling’s name).

3. Use Caution When Following Links 

Whenever you’re on Facebook, your URL should be “facebook.com”. If you follow a link that reads “www.facebook33.tk” or “www.facebook1.php”, that’s usually a giveaway that the page you’re on is phishing your information. While an anti-virus program or firewall could help prevent your devices from being bugged, many of these phishing sites can sidestep these measures. As such, always make sure your URL is encrypted by having a “http://” before your Facebook address, and avoid clicking on suspicious links.

The same logic goes for any outside links your friends may share in a post – if it looks suspicious and the URL lacks at “http://”, has out-of-place characters in the address or both, it’s best to pass on whatever cat video from Buzzfeed your friend is sharing at work.

Remember, anything you post to Facebook, even if you delete it, remains on the Internet forever. These tips are designed to keep your reputation safe as much as they are intended to keep your data safe. If your Facebook page is in need of a cleanup, be sure you remove anything lewd or inappropriate and update your page regularly with positive content. Just like a tree with cuts in its trunk, bad content never goes away – but it can be made a smaller part of your digital self.

Privacy Settings
There are a lot of different aspects of your Facebook account that you can change. Altering your privacy settings is one way to make your account more secure. To do this, click the “padlock” symbol. This will take you to your account settings, where you can adjust a variety of features on your account. Click the “privacy” setting. Here you can control who sees your posts or sends you friend requests, who can search for you on Facebook, or who can link to your profile. In addition, you can alter who sees your posts or photos, or review any posts that you’re tagged in before they are made public. The more you limit your audience to “friends” only, the more secure you make your account.

Read More: Unknown LinkedIn Connections Could be Hackers in Disguise

Security Settings
The next step to a more secure Facebook account is to adjust your security settings. Here you can:

• Get a notification or email alert whenever your account is used on an unknown device
• Require a login code to access your account on unknown browsers
• Choose a trusted contact to access your account in case of an emergency
• Review which devices you’re currently active on
• Choose a “legacy contact” who can take over your account in the case of your death
• Deactivate your account

Some of the other security features are slightly more complex. If you choose to activate “login approvals” (this is when you require a login code on unknown browsers), you can further strengthen your account through additional steps. Activating login approvals will give you access to Code Generator, a feature that creates a unique security code every 30 seconds. You can use this code in addition to a password, or even to reset your password.

Another cool feature is a “one-time password.” This is a good option if you want to log on to Facebook on public Wi-Fi. On Facebook’s Help page, you can find a number you can text that will assign you a one-time temporary password.

Other Tips to Keep in Mind

• Make sure that you have a secure email address associated with your account.
• Download PSafe Total to protect your devices from security threats.