Computer Opleidingen

In a couple of weeks your Facebook profile will have changed dramatically. Not only will you be forced to use the new Facebook Timeline, but your privacy concerns will turn into a nightmare. But not to worry, follow my guidelines and protect yourself.

What is so dangerous about the Timeline? Well, for starters it will randomly unearthy some of your older posts. Things you might have forgotten. Ex-girlfriends, naughty comments about past and present colleagues, pictures you would rather not remember, status updates that tell of drunken nights, visits to dubious pubs and irresponsible behaviour that your present employer might not appreciate

Guidelines to make sure the Timeline does what it should, and nothing more!

1. Hide that timeline

The best and smartest thing to do is to tackle the timeline head-on. You can remove any post, photo or status update from appearing on the timeline. Just move your cursor over the top right corner of a Timeline post and choose "edit" or "remove" from the submenu. Finally select "Hide from Timeline" for privacy sake.

2. Manage your activity log

Every single thing you ever wrote on Facebook can suddenly appear for the whole world to see. So take a couple of hours to hunt down all those silly, annoying and embarrassing titbits. Don't forget to check your "activity log" which consolidates all your posts.

3. You got to hide your love away

All your profile pictures are available for public viewing. Even albums that you archived might pop up again in the new Timeline. Why don't you take a look at your photos and open "Privacy Settings" and choose "Customizing". There you will find "edit Album Privacy" which controls who sees what

4. Geo-tagging is a nightmare

Imagine you told your boss you were with a client. But you had lunch with a friend instead and she geo-tags your whereabouts. Everybody's nightmare. Friends can geo-tag or even put a time and date on your (and their) pictures. The bad news is that Facebook doesn't make it possible to untag you in one go from all geo-tags. It will be a painstakingly effort to remove them all one by one.

5. Apps will kill you softly

Don't want your boss to know you are playing Farmville on company time? Don't want your husband to find out you just wished your ex-boyfriend a happy birthday? Apps have access to a whole myriad of information, and they will share it with everyone if you are not careful. Go to the Apps menu to delete those apps you don't like anymore, and change the privacy on the ones you do.

Oh, and a word for the wise: Facebook has a 'View As' function that allows you to see how other people see your profile. Use it to make sure you haven't forgotten anything important.

And if all that doesn't do the trick: feel free to cancel your Facebook account but remember that there will always be something of you alive within the archives of Facebook.