How to Protect Your Privacy on Facebook
When you sign up as a user of Facebook, the default settings allow all other Facebook users to find you in searches. However, only those you have confirmed as friends or who share a network with you have access to your full profile. By default, your name and thumbnail profile picture can also be found on public search engines. Facebook has selected these settings based on what it believes most users want, but you can always change them to restrict access to your information, as you see fit. Therefore, you can change the default settings to restrict access to your profile. Under the current setting, only your friends, their friends, and the people on your networks can see your profile. If you download Facebook Platform third-party applications into your profile, some of your information may be shared (see section on “Applications” below). It is important to explore these default settings, to adjust the privacy settings to those with which you are comfortable.