In the modern world, our online privacy is more and more important every day. With cell phones that can track our every move to Internet sites that mine for our personal data, we must be ever vigilant about what we post to the internet and with whom we associate. Facebook privacy fits in this category very well. Many of us put personal information for the world to see without even thinking about it. It’s safe right? Facebook is a good company, they respect my privacy, right? Well, yes and no. No, Facebook will not openly sell personal information and use it against you. However, what they will do is collect data relevant to their interests.

Facebook makes its money from advertising. Advertising that, if you notice, is directly related to your interests. The way this is accomplished is through data mining. Facebook – and this is in the License Agreement you agreed to – will look at your profile and pick data out of it to target advertising, and also to gather metrics regarding their user base.

You can secure your profile by clicking Account–> Privacy Settings. From here, you can restrict what your friends, friends of friends, and everyone can see in your profile. I recommend changing these settings based on what you would allow these groups of people to see.

In this wondrous digital age, where we are constantly connected to one, it is almost impossible to not use technology. It does make our lives easier, but at the cost of our privacy. Just remember, don’t post anything you don’t want everyone to see, and if it’s on the Internet, you can never remove it completely.