Facebook - Surfing Securely

I can't help but hear Andy Rooney's voice from 60 Minutes as I begin....

Do you ever notice the address for facebook.com?  If it doesn't begin with "https://" then you're not getting all the protection that facebook has to offer.  If it begins as "http://" then your connection is more vulnerable to hackers and identity thieves.

This issue is much more critical when you're on a public or semi-public network, like connecting at Starbucks, or your hotel room or lobby, or even the library.  When you're at home, you only have to worry about your kids hacking your facebook surfing - and maybe your neighbors, if you have a good wireless signal.

The remedy is simple.  Login to your facebook profile, and click on the Account menu link, then scroll down to Account Settings.  You'll see something like this:

So click on change for Account Security, then click the check box under Secure Browsing (https), so the green check mark appears, and then click the Save button.

Pretty easy, huh?  Be careful, though;  you start telling people that you know how to do this and they'll anoint you as the computer expert!




The fine print: 
Note that facebook changes its interface occasionally, so if you're reading this in the year 2013, the settings and options might be different.

https://www.facebook.com/editaccount.php?drop