Facebook 2FA or Help! my Facebook is spewing out ads to all my friends!

25th January 2021

My Facebook is sending out crap:

From a PC (not a phone) Top Right, down arrow, Settings & Privacy

Settings

make sure all the email addresses here are correct. Use the edit button to change. if a bad guy has changed an email address, they will be able to get back into your account even if they don’t know the password!

Click Security and Login

Under where You’re Logged in click “See More”

Use the 3 dots menu and Logout anything that is over a month old, OR from a place you don’t recognize. If you don’t log that bad guy out, they will be able to change your password or your recovery email.

Next Change your password. Click “Edit”, follow prompts.

Click Edit next to “use two-factor authentication” SMS is the easiest method, unless you don’t have a cellular plan. App and Key are more secure but much harder to setup. You should only get asked to use SMS verification once a month, for each device you use to access facebook.

When you are done you will need to click the greyed out “Security and Login” near the top of the page.

Under privacy, make sure nothing says Public, it should say Friends or “Friends of Friends” unless this is a business account. A bad guy may not be logged into your account, they may just be able to see all of your friends.

Ad Preferences, Ad Settings, Categories used to reach you

Turn all 4 of these off

its scary that Facebook provides all this info to advertisers by default.

General recommendations:

Don’t set your last name as your maiden name hyphen your married name. Mother’s maiden name is a common knowledge based question when resetting passwords. You are giving away your children’s password reset questions.

also don’t use specific family links for uncles etc. facebook only needs to know they are your friend, not the specific relationship. your uncle’s last name is your mothers maiden name, on your mothers side.