Worried that Facebook is playing a little too fast and loose with your personal photos, updates, and other information? Read on for six ways to put a lid on your Facebook account.

1. Seal off your publicly available information

Just click the icon to select a new privacy setting for various bits of your personal info.

By default, Facebook shares your name, profile photo, and gender with … well, pretty much everyone—and there’s not much you can do about it.

(Besides, if you want the fact that you’re on Facebook hidden from the world, you probably shouldn’t be on Facebook at all.)

But if you want to keep other personal details—such where you live, or where you work—under wraps, here’s how to do it.

1. See your name in the upper-right corner of the Facebook home page? Click it, then click the “Edit Profile” button that appears just beneath it.
2. Now, you’ll see a two-column page, with nine headings on the left and a panel of personal information options to the right. Next to each option, you’ll see a little icon that shows your current privacy settings; for example, a globe next to your hometown means that everyone on Facebook can see where you were born, while a pair of small heads means that only your those on your Friend list can see where you grew up.
3. Click through each of the main headings and check out your various privacy settings, paying special attention to the “Basic Information,” “Education and Work,” and “Contact Information” headings. For instance, don’t want anyone knowing where you live or work, or your home address? Click the appropriate icon and set it to “Only Me.”
4. All set? Click the “View As…” button in the upper-right hand corner of the page to see how others will see your Facebook profile. (You can also type in a name to see how a specific friend—or friend-of-a-friend—will see you on Facebook.)

2. Restrict sharing to your friends

 
Every time you tap in a status update or change your relationship on Facebook, your Facebook friends will know about it—and depending on your settings, a surprisingly large circle of people may be checking out your daily musings, vacation photos, and latest “Likes.”

Just select an option to set your default sharing setting for your Facebook posts.

Luckily, there’s a quick and easy way to clamp down on who gets to see your Facebook activity.

1. Click the little arrow in the upper-right corner of any Facebook page, right next to the “Home” link, then click Privacy Settings.
2. In the middle of the following page, you’ll see three large icons: Public, Friends, and Custom, and by selecting one of these three options, you’ll determine the default privacy setting for all your Facebook updates.
3. So, only want your friends to see your Facebook posts? Click the Friends icon. Want to exclude certain friends from seeing your latest updates? Click the Custom icon, then type the names of the people you’d rather not share with in the “Hide this from” section.
4. Also, you can now select a sharing option for any specific update as you post it; just click the pull-down menu right next to the “Post” button and select a sharing setting.
5. Last but not least, you can also restrict the privacy settings for all your previous Facebook updates in one fell swoop; here’s how to do it.

3. Close the door on third-party Facebook apps and websites

 
You’ve probably gone ahead and installed various Facebook applications from third-party developers from time to time—you know, games like FarmVille and Pocket God, social apps like We’re Related, or fundraising applications like Causes. You may also have granted many, many outside Web sites access to your Facebook account over the past months and years.

You can slam the door on all Facebook apps with a single click.

But if you’ve lost track of which apps and websites can pry into your Facebook information—or if you’d rather just clang a big metal door down on all third-party apps and sites—here’s how to do it.

1. Head back to your Privacy Settings (click the little arrow in the upper-right corner of the page, click the Privacy Settings link), then select the “Edit setting” link under the “Apps and Websites” heading.
2. Click the Edit Settings button next to the “Apps you use” heading to see a list of all the apps and sites that have access to your Facebook account, Click “Edit” to view or revoke specific access privileges (like whether an app can post to your wall, or access your data 24/7), or click the little “x” to remove an app entirely.
3. Want to keep an app connected to your account, but don’t want it sharing all your activity with the world? Go to the “App activity privacy” section, click the pull-down menu to the right, then select “Only Me” under the “Make this visible to” heading.
4. Want to cut off access to any and all apps and websites in one fell swoop? Back under the “Apps you use” section, click the “Turn off all platform apps” link. Clang!

4. Keep friends from checking you into places

 
Those who use the Facebook app for the iPhone or other smartphones can “check in” to say, a restaurant, cafe, movie theater, or some other public venue. If this sounds similar to “checking on” to a place on Foursquare, well … it is.

Checking in on Facebook is all well and good for those who delight in letting others know where they are at all times, but here’s the thing: If you’re hanging out with one of your Facebook friends and you both wander into a bar, your friend can go ahead and check you in there, too—meaning that all your Facebook buddies will know where you spent the evening, co-workers and bosses included. Not good.

The good news is that you can keep oversharing Facebook friends from checking you in somewhere without your permission.

1. On the Privacy Settings page, find the “How Tags Work” section and click the “Edit Settings” link.
2. In the pop-up window that appears, find the “Friends Can Check You Into Places” setting. Is it set to “On”? If so, click it, then click the pull-down menu in the next pop-up window and select
3. In the pop-up window, switch the Enabled button to the Disabled setting.

5. Screen photos tagged with your name

 
Don’t want everyone on Facebook—including, say, your boss, or your mom—seeing those photos of you at the office holiday party with a lampshade on your head? I know the feeling.

Turn on "Profile Review" to see any tagged photos of you before they appear on your profile.

Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do to keep people from uploading compromising pictures of you at the office holiday party on Facebook. That said, you can at least get the chance to review any photo that’s tagged with your name before it gets posted to your Facebook wall, for all to see.

1. On the main Privacy Settings page, skip down to “How Tags Work” and click the “Edit Settings” link.
2. In the pop-up window that appears, you’ll see an option called “Profile Review” at the very top. Click it, then click the button on the next window labeled “Turn On Profile Review.”
3. From now on, you’ll get a notification whenever a Facebook friend tags you in a photo, and you’ll be able to review said snapshot before it goes live on your Facebook profile.
4. While we’re at it, you can prevent Facebook from suggesting photos of you to friends by clicking the “Tag Suggestions” option, then selecting the “Disabled” option in the pop-up that appears.

6. Block random Facebook messages and friend requests

By default, anyone and everyone on Facebook can send you a message or a friend request. But if you’d rather not get notes or requests from strangers, old flames, or anyone else who isn’t already a friend (or a “friend of a friend”) on Facebook, here’s how you do it.

1. Find the “How You Connect” heading on the main “Privacy Settings” page and click the “Edit Settings” link.
2. On the pop-up window that appears, you’ll see a variety of settings, ranging from “Who can look up your profile by name or contact info” to “Who can see Wall posts by others on your profile.”
3. For each setting, click the appropriate pull-down menu and pick a privacy option; for instance, if you want to block Facebook messages from anyone who isn’t already a “friend,” select “Friends” for the “Who can send you Facebook messages” setting.

Have more questions about Facebook privacy, or any additional suggestions? Let me know!

Note: I’ve updated this post to reflect the latest changes in Facebook’s privacy settings.

Tagged as: Facebook