[imagesource: Woody Harrington/For The Washington Post]
When you apply for a job, there’s a very good chance your potential employers are having a thorough look at your social media accounts.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and whatever else the kids are using these days is all fair game.
(Oh, and if you want to be the next Miss South Africa, don’t be like Bianca Schoombee.)
On Facebook, your privacy settings should already be in place (it’s 2020, a public profile is really not a great idea), but have you ever wondered what a deep dive into your Facebook posts from years of old would look like?
I dabbled, and there was a great deal of cringe. Many users have been on the social network since 2007 or so, and apparently I thought it was hilarious to post about becoming blackout drunk.
Delete.
To rid your account of similarly cringeworthy content, you can scroll through your timeline for hours, but there is a far easier way, laid out below by MyBroadband.
This applies to the mobile app:
To access the feature, navigate to your Activity Log from your profile.
At the top of the screen, tap “Manage Activity” and select “Your posts” in the pop-up menu.
This will give you a bulk view of all your posts sorted by date.
From here, you can also refine posts through filters including category, date and people.
This allows you to show only posts within a certain date range or which may include certain people, and delete or archive them.
The Archive and Trash locations can be found next to the Filters option above the list of your posts.
In due time, the same feature should be available on the website as well.
Perhaps you look at your Facebook timeline as a diary of sorts, but I’m sure there are many others who will be happy to make use of the ‘Manage Activity’ feature, which was rolled out earlier this week.
Either way, now you know.
Before we go, here are three other Facebook settings your should look at to increase your online security, via the Washington Post:
- Turn off the ability of Facebook to track what you do in other apps, websites and even stores. This Off-Facebook Activity setting, which it added in January, lets you tell Facebook to stop adding information it collects from a remarkably wide range of partners to your profile. Use this link on the Web, or in the Facebook app look for Off-Facebook activity under settings.
- Turn off the ability of others to tag you in posts and photos and have it show up on your own profile without your permission. Use this link on the Web, or look for “Timeline and Tagging” under “Settings” in the app. Make sure “On” is selected for “Review posts you’re tagged in before the post appears on your timeline.”
- Turn off the ability of others to see your friends list, information that can be used to surveil, catfish or phish you. Use this link on the Web, or look for “Privacy Settings” in the app. Scroll down to “Who can see your friends list” and make sure it is set to “Only me.”
Safety first.
[sources:mybroadband&washintonpost]
