The appeal of Facebook and other social networking sites is undeniable. It is so easy to be in the comfort of your home or even on the go while having the power of a thriving social life in the palm of your hands. It is so easy to look up old friends, make new ones, build business relationships, etc. With all the cool features that we have grown to love, it is easy to dive into this world of connectedness' without thinking to yourself, "what's the downside?" Once you get past the convenient features of social networking it is important to consider the ramifications of personal information traveling through cyberspace. Along with the ease of using Facebook it is also very easy to keep your Facebook a Safebook by following these important safety tips.

Facebook Safety Tip 1: Don't accept friend requests unless you absolutely know who they are. This is pretty simple just ask yourself, "Would I associate with them in person?" If yes then add them.

Facebook Safety Tip 2: Post only what you want made public. This means don't announce you are leaving your house giving potential burglars an open invite.

Facebook Safety Tip 3: Manage your privacy settings. Sixty percent of social network users are unaware of their default privacy settings. Facebook actually does a good job of explaining how to lock your privacy down ( though they don't set up your account with good privacy settings by default). To make it easy for you, follow these steps:

1. Spend 10 minutes reading the Facebook Privacy Policy. This is an education in social networking privacy issues. Once you have read through a privacy policy, you will never view your private information in the same way. At the point the privacy policy is putting you to sleep, move on to Step 2.
2. Visit the Facebook Privacy Help Page. This explains how to minimize all of the possible personal information leakage that you just read about in the privacy policy. Once you understand this on one social networking site, it becomes second nature on most of the others.
Now it is time to customize your Facebook Privacy Settings so that only the information you WANT shared, IS shared. This simple step will reduce your risk of identity theft dramatically.

Facebook Safety Tip #4: Keep Google Out. Unless you want all of your personal information indexed by Google and other search engines, restrict your profile so that it is not visible to these data-mining experts. If information is not visible, then it will not be able to indexed. This all ties back to the Privacy Settings that you can easily customize. (Refer to the following picture)

Facebook Safety Tip #5: Don't unthinkingly respond to Friends in Distress. If you receive a post requesting money to help a friend out, do the smart thing and call them in person. Friend in Distress schemes are when a thief takes over someone's account and then makes a plea for financial help to all of the victim's friends (who are led to believe the post is coming from the victim). As with all matters of identity, verify the source.