How to scan Facebook for fraudulent links and users

Facebook undoubtedly is the most popular social networking site out there! Skeptics could argue about popularity of other sites. Anyways, over the past we all have started to see those fraudulent links on Facebook. 'Oh how could she do that in public', 'he must be insane to do this', etc. are the taglines they try to use to tempt users into clicking them. But little do we realize that the motive behind it could be installing a malware on your computer, spamming your wall with ads, posting obscene messages on your friend's walls, infecting timelines, messages and even chats!

Norton (very popular anti-virus software provider) has a web-application called Norton Safe Web for Facebook which assists in fighting these threats on Facebook. Like all other Facebook apps, it will ask your approval to install. Click on 'Allow'.

On the subsequent screen it will ask for additional permissions to access your posts, timelines etc to scan them for any infections.

One it has scanned your profile it will show the results as below. It may take some time depending upon how active you are on Facebook and how much work it has to do to search all your posts, timelines etc.

You also have the option on enabling auto scan so that you don't have to run the scan frequently. It is a free application.

How does your Facebook profile appear to your network friends ?

Sometime or the other we have always wondered - How does my profile appear to others? I did not mean to share this post with her - did it get shared accidentally ? Does he get to see all my posts ? Other than asking the people in your network the obvious questions [which no one will do :)], Facebook has another solution! The 'View As' button!

I think this a great feature introduced by Facebook. You can click on the 'View As' link and then search for anyone in your network and exactly see what they see in your Profile. Now isn't that a nice option ??

In order to view the 'View As' button, click on your profile in Facebook, then you should see the button under the 'Home' button as shown above.

Facebook Poke

If you have logged in to Facebook recently and if you liked  the Facebook 'Poke' feature, you may have realized that they have removed this feature. I am not sure if this feature was really popular as I never saw any Pokes or Poke updates in Facebook :). Though for those of you who really used this feature, there is a good news. Facebook has not entirely removed this feature, just hidden it a bit. Maybe they have sensed that its not that popular.



To Poke anyone, visit their profile page and click on the small gear (settings) button. The option to Poke should be listed there.


Safe Poking!