You may vaguely remember a ‘privacy settings’ dialogue box that popped up on Facebook in December 2009. If you just skimmed through (or ignored) the fine print and opted for the recommended changes, you gave Facebook the right to publicise your private information. This includes everything from status updates and shared links to photos and videos. Depending on your search settings, you may have also given Facebook the right to share your information with search engines.

According to a recent article on econsultancy.com, Facebook currently has in excess of 350 million active users. How comfortable are you with sharing all your personal information with all of these users (and potentially a whole lot more via search engines)?

If you’re completely horrified by the thought, you may want to consider social media suicide. However, if you’re looking for the middle ground between removing every trace of your online existence and sharing your personal information with anyone and everyone who’s out there, then take a couple of minutes to review your Facebook privacy settings first.

To do this, go to your Facebook Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at the top right and click “Privacy Settings”. Select “Personal Information” and check all your settings to make sure that the things you post are being seen by the right people. Anything that you want to limit to your network of Facebook friends should be marked as “Only Friends”.

To control what information about you appears on search engines, you need to go to the “Search Settings” section under “Privacy Settings”. If the box next to “Allow” is ticked, you’re giving search engines the ability to access and index any information you’ve marked as visible by “Everyone”. To disable this setting, untick the “Allow” box.

What are your thoughts on this? How much of your personal information do you keep private?