It's a wildly popular social networking Web site; Facebook may let you "friend" its users, but you might be surprised to learn that not everyone who can access your profile is your friend. That could cost you your privacy and maybe your safety.
"I put pictures of my family. I put pictures of my little boy on there," Casey Turnmire said. She is 30-something years old and the mother of a three-year-old. She's also been using Facebook for three years.
"I get on there at least once or twice a day, every day," she said.
She's one of over 400 million Facebook users worldwide, and many of them could potentially see your personal information.
Facebook's privacy policy allows them to decide what they'll do with your information and you have the option of choosing your privacy settings. But here's the catch - those important privacy settings can be difficult to figure out or even find.
"Social networking has totally changed what we think is private and blurred the lines between private information and public information," assistant law professor at Baylor University, Connie Powell said.
"It's scary to know that other people can go on there and read my stuff; people that I don't know; possibly predators," Turnmire said.
But that is exactly what can happen if you leave one little check box in your privacy settings selected. It gives the green light to anyone, anywhere to find a version of your Facebook profile.
For example, when KCEN HD News reporter Rebekah Hood typed Casey's name in to Google, Casey was shocked by what was found.
"If you click on the blue, the link to your name, I can see your full profile," Rebekah said.
"Oh. That's kinda scary!" Casey said.
Information Casey mistakenly thought only her friends and family could see was fair game on the Internet.
"I can see your home town, that you're married, even down to where you graduated high school, and the year," Rebekah said.
Powell says that's just enough information to be damaging.
"That's the number one question when you try to retrieve your password, 'which high school did you go to?' if you've forgotten your password," Powell said.
After learning where her privacy settings are, and how to use them, Casey will make some changes.
"I'm gonna go on and block everybody from being able to look at my stuff except for my friends like I what was going on," Casey said.
Remember, your privacy and safety are literally in your hands.
Monday night at 10 p.m. we'll show you how you can use Facebook and other social networks in actually land a job.
Reporter: Rebekah Hood, Photographer: Erin Coker
MORE INFORMATION:
Click the links below for each social networking site's privacy policies:
Facebook
MySpace
LinkedIn
Twitter
Click HERE to find out what information Facebook is spreading about you. By typing in your Facebook username, you can click on the resulting links to see if Facebook is sharing your information.
