The new guides, which can be found on the Facebook Privacy Basics site, are designed to help users understand the best ways to create a strong password, how to handle suspicious messages and what to do if someone takes over the user`s account.
Available in 40 languages, the guides also touch on how the world`s largest social network responds to government requests for user information and the steps Facebook takes to protect your information.
`Since last November, millions of people have visited Facebook Privacy Basics, a dedicated resource that gives people a simpler way to find and use our privacy controls,` wrote Melissa Luu-Van, a Facebook product manager, in a blog post. `After seeing how interested people are in material like this, we discovered that they also had questions about our security tools.`
Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research, told Computerworld that this is a helpful step for Facebook`s more than 1 billion users. `I really like this,` he said. `I think security of Internet sites can be intimidating, especially for non-tech-savvy people. I believe the majority of users just choose the default settings and then are surprised when that level of security isn`t enough. Facebook`s easy-to-follow guide should allow more people to be as secure or insecure as they want to be but understand it better.`
Kerravala also said the graphics added to the guides make the instructions easier to follow.
`The information is there but it`s more the graphical guide that makes it easy,` he explained. `The graphics de-intimidate the process… I think this is the type of information that all users should know. There are so many scams and the like on the web, it`s important to not have Facebook be the conduit for it.`
The issue is getting users to check out the new guides so they can better protect themselves while on Facebook.
Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy said Facebook will need to help users find the information, possibly by putting pointers near where people sign in and out or on their news feeds.
`Even better would be for them to take some of their precious ad space and advertise the new capability,` said Moorhead. `I think this is a really good step for users. But I think Facebook should be this aggressive in protecting their users` privacy. Users need both security and privacy protection.`
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