The top 7 things you shouldn't do on Facebook.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Last January, Consumer Reports conducted a survey of 2,000 online households and the results found that more than half of social network users had posted information that put them at risk of becoming a victim of cybercrime. According to the study, nine percent of social network users had experiences some form of abuse such as malware infections, scams, identity theft or harassment in the last year. CR also found that nearly half of social networkers were posting their full birthday (day, month and year), putting themselves at risk of identity theft and 26 percent had put children at risk by posting their photos and names.

Consumer Reports estimates that over the last two years, American consumers replaced more than 2 million computers as a result of cybercrime and spent $4.5 billion. The consumer watchdog came up with a list of seven things that could help you avoid becoming a victim of cybercrime. Check 'em out below.

1. Using a weak password

Avoid simple names or words you can find in a dictionary, even with numbers tacked on the end. Instead, mix upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. A password should have at least eight characters. One good technique is to insert numbers or symbols in the middle of a word, such as this variant on the word "houses": hO27usEs!

2. Leaving your full birth date in your profile

It's an ideal target for identity thieves, who could use it to obtain more information about you and potentially gain access to your bank or credit card account. If you've already entered a birth date, go to your profile page and click on the Info tab, then on Edit Information. Under the Basic Information section, choose to show only the month and day or no birthday at all.

3. Overlooking useful privacy controls

For almost everything in your Facebook profile, you can limit access to only your friends, friends of friends, or yourself. Restrict access to photos, birth date, religious views, and family information, among other things. You can give only certain people or groups access to items such as photos, or block particular people from seeing them. Consider leaving out contact info, such as phone number and address, since you probably don't want anyone to have access to that information anyway.

4. Posting your child's name in a caption

Don't use a child's name in photo tags or captions. If someone else does, delete it by clicking on Remove Tag. If your child isn't on Facebook and someone includes his or her name in a caption, ask that person to remove the name.

5. Mentioning that you'll be away from home

You might as well put a "no one's home, feel free to rob me" sign on your door. Wait until you get home to tell everyone how awesome your vacation was and be vague about the date and itinerary of any trip.

6. Letting search engines find you

To help prevent strangers from accessing your page, go to the Search section of Facebook's privacy controls and select Only Friends for Facebook search results. Be sure the box for public search results isn't checked.

7. Permitting really little kids to use Facebook unsupervised

(for obvious reasons)

[DZComposer]

Meh... Facebook doesn't care about privacy. I don't even use it anymore.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

I'm "off the grid" of Facebook, and Myspace...I have a life... 

[conaly]

Hi,

there is just ONE thing you shouldn't do on facebook: REGISTER! *never_been_never_will*

[Star Fox Runner]

I only use it to keep tabs on my friends, I don't ever really post anything on there, or play any of the games.

[Sarita]

That's why you don't add people you don't know. It limits the things they can see as long as your profile is set to private. The only issue with Facebook is that people don't use these options. There are quite a few features that keep anyone but only the people you add to your profile from seeing anything you put on your profile.

(This topic actually reminded me to change my privacy setting around a bit, ha.)

["User"]

I only use it to keep tabs on my friends, I don't ever really post anything on there, or play any of the games.

Same. 

That's why you don't add people you don't know. It limits the things they can see as long as your profile is set to private. The only issue with Facebook is that people don't use these options. There are quite a few features that keep anyone but only the people you add to your profile from seeing anything you put on your profile.

(This topic actually reminded me to change my privacy setting around a bit, ha.)

It's annoying when I have to change those settings around every time I hear about a new clause in their Privacy Policy or something lol

[Asper Sarnoff]

Never been at Facebook, and I don't think I've missed something by not being there either.

[Guest FoXXX]

Never been on Facebook, never will be.

[Scott7]

A small (VERY small) chance that i'll be getting one within the next year....

mostly because i have no connections to my friends outside of school....

[Mr. Foxer]

Eh, I have one 'cause I get free iTunes samplers if I do.

[Geo Stelar]

There is a "top eight"

- Don't just add people as friends here and there, especially if they're really friendly to you even if it's your first time to meet. Some people out there will get you hooked up until they can hack your account. Some can even send you e-mails with viruses. You must add people as friends if and only if you know that person well.

P.S. To be honest, I only use facebook for it's fun games.

[Guest DRL]

I do not have Facebook...

I really do not take much photos

of myself, rarely I share them,

let alone on a site called 'Book

of Faces' (or kind of)...

[Matrilwood]

The best way to stop identity thieves is to use a fake identity on the internet.

There is no such person as Reeve Matrilwood, at least not in the "Real World".