Facebook Battles Security Issues With Trusted Friends And App Passwords

Facebook is no stranger to privacy and security issues. Research shows that 600,000 hacking attempts are made on the social network site every day. Recent security updates were made to protect your privacy and make your settings clearer to you. Now two new security features on the way—Trusted Friends and App Passwords.

Microsoft recently added a feature to Hotmail to let your friends help you out if your account gets hijacked. Now Facebook is following suit by enlisting the help of your friends in time of need.

Trusted Friends lets you choose three to five of your nearest and dearest friends to get ‘spare keys’ to your account. If you ever get locked out they can come to your rescue. These friends get sent codes, they send them to you, you plug them in, and you’re in! Thanks friends!

The key word here is ‘trusted’ friends, as the codes they get are used to confirm your identity. These friends could gang up on you and take control of your account behind your back. Choose carefully! Trusted friends, not evil ones.

Facebook can be used to connect with everything these days. Giving out your password all over the place is not really safe. App Passwords lets you create special passwords to access third party apps instead of using your master password all of the time.

You can make special codes for apps like Skype and use those to log in with your Facebook account. If you ever want to block Skype, just delete the password that was made for it. Your master password stays the same (and safe).

All it takes is one click—one oops—to get your Facebook account hacked. Maybe you just want to play games, get a free vacation, or see who is viewing our profile. These features are great to help save the day but proactive is always better than reactive. Think before you click!