What does Facebook do with your personal data and how can you stay in control? These tips will give you a better user experience with Facebook.

What does Facebook know about you?

Find out what Facebook knows about you by clicking on the cog icon in the top right-hand corner and going to your account settings. At the bottom of your account settings you will find a link to "Download a copy of your Facebook data". You can keep your posts private, but your name, profile picture and gender are always public.

Who sees my posts?

The default setting of your profile is programmed to "public". If you don't want everyone to have access to your data, go to Account settings, Privacy, and edit your content. Click on "public" and select whether only your friends or only you can see the content.
If your posts are set to public, anyone can see them, including potential burglars. This way, they can find out when someone is going on holiday. Worse still, insurance companies often use these public posts to refuse a payout. Only post your holiday plans when you are back or change your privacy settings.

Manipulation of your posts

Facebook wants to show the posts that keep users engaged and interested for as long as possible. That's why the posts with the most comments and likes are often higher up. Unfortunately, this means that other posts get lost and are not seen.
However, this also has its advantages, as important news such as weddings, engagements or graduations remain in your friends' news feeds until the next time they log in. This means they don't miss out on important events.
You can also sort your posts by main messages and latest posts by clicking on the small arrow at the bottom right of the status field next to the word "sort".

Facebook knows where you are

If you are logged in and surfing the Internet, Facebook follows you on the pages. Whenever you visit a page that has a Facebook button, your profile will appear.

How does Facebook use your data?

Facebook is free for the user. Facebook earns money through advertising on the site. Your personal details are used to create a demographic group. This means that the adverts you see are targeted to where you live, your hobbies or your career. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it just means that there may be something of interest to you among the adverts. It's also free for you to click on the adverts to find out more.

Timeline

Many users are against the timeline. But overall, the timeline is supposed to be a more effective way of sharing news and it looks better too. Advertisers like it because it helps them learn more about their customers.

Beware of pranksters

Never leave your computer unattended while you are logged in. This is because colleagues or friends can post something on your profile page and make you look ridiculous!

Make yourself invisible to annoying people

You can hide yourself from certain friends or from everyone by clicking on a specific name in the chat box and going to "offline". You will then be visible to this friend as offline, even if you are logged in.