In view of the recent news about 100 million Facebook profile being leaked, we would like to bring to you a short tutorial on how to exclude yourself from such situation.
The profile data that were leak were actually nothing new. All the information is already available if one searches it. The listed users are those who have not bothered to remove themselves from being listed on public search engines.
Here is a quick How To:
1. Log in to your Facebook Account.
2. Select the Privacy Settings options from the Accounts tab.
3. At the bottom of the following page, you will find the settings for ‘Applications and Websites’. Click on the ‘Edit your settings’ link.
4. On the following page, you will find a ‘public search’ at the bottom of the list. Click on the ‘Edit Settings’ button located at the far right side.
5. Now you’ll see a description of the public search settings and at the bottom of the description, ‘Enable public search’ with a check box in front of it.
Uncheck the option and congratulations, “you have just removed yourself from public search.”
If you’re having trouble logging into your Facebook account you’re in luck, you’ve come to the right place. Back in October we wrote up an article called Facebook Technical Support with some really useful tips for getting logged into your Facebook account as soon as possible. Make sure and read through the comments, you’ll realize that you’re not the only one having trouble.
Facebook security is an important issue. As Facebook becomes increasingly popular, the incentive to steal a user’s Facebook Login becomes even greater. As a Facebook user, it’s your duty to become aware of the threat and do something about it.
The main concern is identity theft. If someone gains access to your Facebook account they have the ability to see massive amounts of private information about you such as who your friends are, your email address, your photos, and anything you’ve posted to Facebook. Even worse, they can communicate with your family and friends as if they were you.
Part of staying secure is knowing what information you’re sharing and with whom. Last month, Facebook launched new, simpler privacy settings, giving you more transparency and control over the information you share with applications and Facebook-integrated websites. In order to stay secure, you must use Facebook correctly and only share the information you intent to share with the people you want to share it woth.
For more information on Facebook Security, visit the official Facebook Security Page.
If you’ve landed on this page chances are you’re having trouble with your Facebook Login in one way or another. If this is in fact the case, one of the first things you should do is visit the official Facebook Help Center. This is a page within Facebook.com that is designed to help you solve your Facebook problems quickly and easily. It offers help sections for using facebook, facebook applications and features, facebook security, help discussions, and more.
If you can’t find help at the Facebook Help Center, you might want to try reading our Facebook Technical Support or Facebook Login help articles.
A Russian computer hacker has posted the login and password information for 1,500,000 Facebook users for sale. The accounts are being sold in groups of 1,000 for a price of $45 per batch. It is unknown how the information was stolen, however there are only a few options that make sense. The accounts could have been obtained by a phishing scam, where Facebook users were tricked into entering their information. Another less likely, but plausible possibility is that Facebook’s database was somehow compromised.
This serves as a reminder to only enter your Facebook Login information while at the site Facebook.com. If the address in your browser bar says anything other than Facebook.com, be warned, you may be giving your Facebook Login information directly to a hacker.
Facebook has added a useful new feature to their photo application, automatic face detection. In the past when you uploaded photos to Facebook you were required to manually draw a box around a person’s face and then tag their name to add them to the photo. A new algorithm now automatically detects faces in photos, all you have to do is click and tag. This is only a small improvement, but with 3 billion photos being uploaded to Facebook each month, it could amount to a huge amount of time saved.
The next logical step will be to add image recognition and auto tagging, which is a scary thought. Even if the technology is already available, I think most users would be too freaked out by a feature like this. It would also require a huge amount of processing power to run an image recognition and auto tagging script on every photo uploaded.
If you get an e-mail saying Facebook has reset your password due to security reasons and ask you to open or download an attachment to retrieve your password, then remember, it is a scam.
McAfee warns that several malicious programs including password stealer is installed when user clicks on it. The password stealer can potentially access any username and password combination used on the computer, not just the login credentials for the Facebook.
According to a report on Reuters, McAfee estimates that hackers sent out tens of millions of spam across Europe, the United States and Asia since the campaign began on Tuesday.
Dave Marcus, McAfee’s director of malware research and communications, said that he expects the hackers will succeed in infecting millions of computers.
“With Facebook as your lure, you potentially have 400 million people that can click on the attachment. If you get 10 percent success, that’s 40 million,” he said.
There are obvious clues that this is just another phishing scam. McAfee explains, “Facebook would never send an email alerting a user that they changed his or her password. Another clue that can signal a user has received a spam email is the use of poor grammar and awkward phrases such as in the below greeting “Dear user of facebook.”
One can also see in the image that, a user normally doesn’t need to download any attachment to reset password as opposed to a .zip file that has been attached with the e-mail.
Dear readers, please be cautious of such scam mails and remember the reasoning given above, though not the only ways, to distinguish between scam and real e-mails in future. A little bit of keenness to details and precautions, especially with mails relating to sensitive data like passwords will ensure one’s safety.
[Image Source: McAfee]
The latest security threat to hit Facebook is a malicious application that spreads quickly by enticing users to create their own app that then inadvertently clones one of the template spam applications.
This rouge app, is said to come in many variants of “Who is checking your profile?” and has hit Facebook with improved technique as compared to previous attacks seen on Facebook.
The application is said to trick users into propagating the exploit by creating a brand new Facebook application that hands over the controls to the bad guys. This way, with so many clones, it will be harder for Facebook to block the malicious app.
WebSense’s blog says, “The attack starts with a friend, whom you trust, posting a link on your wall, asking you who is checking your profile. It also entices you by telling you that your friend is viewing your profile.”
Making fake “who view your profile” applications have come and gone many times on Facebook. So, the rough app is said to ask users to create their own Facebook application, which i suppose will be a cool thing for most people. When the user enters their application’s API and application secret, the new application is used to clone one of the template spam applications, each with a different name and icon to entice users.
Some other malicious application(might be the clones) that are; Who Block me?, Who is in your mind?, Who stalks your profile?, Who Always Look into My Album?? etc.. Well, they all really looked enticing right?
Most fake apps are reported so in the application page by users. So, it is always a good practice to check out the application page and read the reviews, rather than just click on “allow”, and give control to the application.
Applications that are “who view your ….” type are not one to be trusted. Neither should they are trusted today nor in the days to come. Facebook policy doesn’t allow apps with such capability. So, never trust such apps, spread the word and keep your online community safe.
[For more details and screen shots, check out the source: WebSense]
Bigger is better, when it comes to viewing photos. As promised back at the end of January, Facebook announced on its blog that it’s finally started increasing the maximum size for photos on Facebook.
Example of 604 pix and 720 pix photo
There is an increase in the size of photos by almost 20%. Previously, the maximum size on photos were set at 604 pixels. Now, the size is increase to 720 pixels which translates to bigger and higher quality photos.
As usual, this larger photo size is being launched gradually over the next few days, some lucky Facebookers have already seen the difference, while the rest have to wait for few days.
A note to remember is, photos that have been already uploaded before will remain the same. Only new photos uploaded after the change occurs in your account will see the effect. So, it’s entirely up to you to delete and upload your old photos again if you want them at 720 pix.
Facebook blog also warns that uploads made from some external applications may continue to use the previous size. So, take this into account too before you start fuming and getting upset 
.
For Facebook, this move will increase the company’s already massive storage costs, but let’s assume that this is a cost Facebook is happy to take on and give us (Facebookers) better service.
Many of you might not know that there is also a cap on the number of photos uploaded in a particular album. Previously, Facebook had a cap of 60 photos in any one album. That limit was increased to 200 last spring.
Anyway, this is not a photo uploading contest rite..? I hope you guys will enjoy this new move of increasing the max pixel limit.
Enjoy yourself!!!
[Image source: Facebook]
Sometimes we find our feeds swamped by notices from various games our Facebook friends play, that we no longer see important information about them. For those of us who do not play those games that they play, these notices are nuisances.
So what can we do so these do not keep showing up on our news feeds? Follow these instructions:
- Hover your mouse over the type of notice that you do not want to see. On the right side of that notice, the word “Hide” will appear.
- Click that word.
- A pop-up will appear where the notice was. Click on the middle button that says “Hide [application name]”. You will no longer get notices from that application.
Eventually, if you wish to see these notices back (like when you start playing that game) you can:
- Go to the upper right hand of your screen where you will see “Account”.
- Click on the down arrow then go to “Application Settings”. A list of all applications you used will come up.
- Click on “Edit Settings” found on the same row of the application you are concerned with. A pop-up will appear.
- Click on the tab “Additional Permissions”.
- Put a check mark on “Publish recent activity (one line stories) to my wall”.
- Click “Okay”.
In contrast, some notices come up because we used the application. Although we no longer use these applications, these still post notices on our News Feeds. To totally disconnect our Facebook accounts from these applications, go back to the list of applications as instructed above:
- Instead of clicking “Edit Settings”, click on the x mark. A pop-up will appear confirming if you want to continue with the removal of the application.
- Click “Remove”.
Do not let those notices overwhelm you. You have control over what you want to see on your Facebook homepage.
