Concerned about Facebook privacy? Follow these three strategies.

If you’ve logged onto Facebook in the past few days, you’ve probably noticed some changes. The Profile looks drastically different, the stories in your News Feed have been reorganized, and there’s a Ticker that displays your Friends’ activity in real-time. (If you’re not yet familiar with these changes, read Mashable‘s excellent overview of all the new features.)

The main result of these changes is that you and your Friends’ personal information and Facebook activity is more visible than ever before. Unsurprisingly, this has led to a lot of worry about Facebook privacy. There’s no need to panic, though: you can still use your privacy settings to control exactly how much you share. We’ll update our Facebook course soon with detailed information about privacy changes. In the meantime,  follow these three simple strategies to make sure you’re only sharing what you want to.

Use the “View As” tool to see how your Profile looks to others.

Seeing the new Facebook Profile can be a little alarming: so much of your personal information is visible in one place, and the new Timeline lets you easily go back and look at your past activity and shares.  You might be reassured, then, to know that you’re probably seeing a lot more of your own information than anyone else can. Take the example of my Profile. The image on the left is the way it looks to me, but the image on the right is the way it would look to you. As you can see, there’s a big difference.

I was able to check this by using the View As tool, which lets you see what other people see when they’re viewing your Profile. This has been a feature for years, and is possibly the most underrated privacy tool on Facebook. I use it to check my privacy after I add new app or set up privacy options for a new Friends List. When I see things I’d rather not share, I delete those posts, then change my privacy settings so they won’t show up again.

To access this tool, click the drop-down arrow next to the View Activity button and select View As…. A toolbar will appear at the top of your Profile, giving you the option to view your Profile through the point of view of a stranger or a Friend.

Don’t install an app without reading what you’re agreeing to.

I’ll admit it: I often skim over Terms of Service agreements or skip them entirely. However, I always read Facebook app permissions before installing them, and you should too. When you install an app or use Facebook to connect to another website or service, a box will pop up that tells you two things:

• Which actions you’re giving the app permission to do. For instance, the app might want permission to post to your Wall or Timeline, or share information about how you use it.
• Which parts of your Profile the app will be able to access, which can include your personal information, your likes, and your Friends’ information, among other things.

The permissions dialog box for Spotify, a music streaming app

This dialog box will only appear once for each app, and once you click Accept, the app will never again ask you permission before using or posting your information.  Many of the privacy complaints people have had about the recent changes to Facebook have centered around this feature, but most of the privacy issues people have with Facebook can be avoided by following this simple rule: Always read the list of app permissions and requirements before you agree to them. If they make you uncomfortable, don’t install the app.

Customize your app permissions.

What if you already installed– and enjoy using– an app, but don’t like how much of your personal information it shares? Take the example of Spotify, a free music-streaming service that requires you to log in with your Facebook account. By default, Spotify updates your Timeline with the music you’re listening to– meaning that all of your Facebook friends can see it when you play that Miley Cyrus song for the fifth time in one day. It’s understandable that you might not want to share this information, but if you wish to keep using the service, simply removing the app isn’t an option.

Examples of stories automatically posted by the Spotify app

Fortunately, nearly every app lets you customize and even revoke many of the permissions you gave it when you installed it. To customize app permissions, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Privacy Settings page, then find the Apps and Games section and click Edit Settings.
2. You’ll see a list of the apps you’ve installed. Hover your mouse over the app whose settings you want to edit, then click the pencil icon that appears.
3. A settings menu for the selected app will appear. The things the app can do are all listed in the section labeled This app can also. To remove permission for an action, click the x to its right. Once you remove the permission for an action, the app will never take that action again.
4. Click the drop-down arrow in the App activity privacy section to set visibility for stories from this app. To keep the updates completely private, select Custom > Only Me.

App settings for Spotify. I removed every single one of the permissions, then set the privacy level to Only Me.

Given how often Facebook changes its interface and adds new features, it’s impossible to know how privacy and app settings will look in a year, or even a few months from now. That said, all the features I discussed above have been around for a while now, and hopefully they’ll be a part of Facebook in the future. At the very least, they can be a starting point for taking control of the information you share.

What about you? Which privacy settings do you find the most useful? Do you have a routine for double-checking your privacy?