Oxymoron: Facebook Security

This whole FB phenomenon is a real paradox. It’s like if you don’t join in, then you’re considered to be a doofus, but if you do join, they want your cell phone number, birthdate, and all kinds of other info. Given FB’s security track record you need to be careful about how much info you share with the world.

And I’m not even going to apologize for having an attitude about it. If  they would tighten up security and eliminate viruses, trojans and other malware, it still wouldn’t mean that it’s OK to let everyone know what your birthday is.

Meanwhile, I have this to say: If you value the security of the information on your computer, be very careful with what you do on FB, who your ‘friends’ are and what you ‘like’. Sure, many people on FB are nice. However there are a few who ruin it for everyone else. Unsavory characters are looking for any little tidbit of info so that they can tuck that into the world wide database that they are building with your name, birthdate, phone number, passwords, SSN, etc.

The bottom line is, don’t allow anyone to see your birthdate, phone number, full name, and any other important personal info. Unfortunately, FB has a really bad habit of hiding the place to change those settings. I used to be able to find it under the Security Settings but I can’t find it right now. Facebook really makes me mad.

So, I had to do a search on “facebook hide birthday” and I found this:

How do I change my birthday and choose who I share it with?

To edit your birthday:

  1. Go to your Timeline and click About under your profile picture
  2. Scroll down to Basic Information and click next to Birth Date
  3. Use the dropdown menus to adjust your birthday
  4. Click Save

There are two audience selectors next to your birthday: one for the day and month and one for the year. Friends won’t get a notification about your upcoming birthday if you don’t share the day and month with them.

Note: If you’ve recently changed your birthday, you may have to wait a few days before you can change it again.

That worked today, but might change tomorrow.