Given today’s concern with online privacy, we need to be diligent in what we share and ensure that our settings in any interactive website are secure. Facebook ranks number one in all social networks with over 550 million unique visitors a month. While Facebook has privacy settings, for many of us it’s difficult to know if our information is really private.

Now there’s a program that can be used to check your Facebook privacy settings and help you discern where you are vulnerable. The website www.reclaimprivacy.org developed a software program that can be used to scan your Facebook settings and find out which settings are ok and which need to be adjusted. The software is easy to use and is run once you logon to your Facebook account. Below are instructions on how to use the software:

1. Go to ReclaimPrivacy and drag this link up to your bookmarks toolbar.
2. Log into to your Facebook account.
3. Go to your Facebook privacy settings and click on the above bookmark (scan for privacy).
4. Once you click on the scan link, you will see a number of scans running.
5. Some will return as green, indicating the area is safe.
6. If anything appears red, this is an area that needs to be adjusted.
7. To the right of each red button will be an explanation telling you what needs to be fixed.
8. Click on the box at the end of the red button and it should correct the problem for you or at minimum tell you what the problem is that you need to correct.

I just ran the program on my Facebook page and it identified areas where my account was safe and a few areas where I was exposed. This is a great program; however, keep in mind, with the recent Facebook privacy changes the software’s features have not yet been updated and are not fully compatible with the current privacy changes. The owners of reclaimprivacy have a Twitter and Facebook account you can follow to find out when the software is fixed to work with Facebook’s privacy settings. If you would like information about Facebook’s privacy settings go to www.facebook.com/policy.php.