Facebook settings you should change right away

1. Videos: Facebook, by default, has set videos to auto-play, irrespective of whether you are connected via LAN, on a WiFi network or a mobile network. This means that videos that appear on your news feed start to play even when you are not on WiFi - thereby consuming your valuable mobile data.

 

Given that a plethora of videos are shared everyday on Facebook and there are only a few that you would actually want to watch, we suggest you to change the default video auto-play setting from “On” to “Wi-Fi” only. This will not only help you in saving your mobile data, but will also make browsing through your news feed less distracting.
To make the changes, Android users can go to “Videos play automatically” under App Settings on their mobile and set it to “Wi-fi only”. On iPhones, go to Settings > Account Settings> Videos and Photos, and change the auto-play setting from “On Mobile Data and WiFi Connections” to “On WiFi connections Only”. Go here to change the settings on a browser.
You can also change the default video quality.
2. Login Alerts: While you could be taking measures to keep your Facebook account safe and secure, but what if someone still manages to hack into your account? Therefore it is important to have login alerts set. With this setting enabled, Facebook will alert you of unauthorised access every time someone tries to login into your account from a new device or browser.

You can set to get alerts in the form of notifications or emails. Login Alerts is located under security Settings.
3. Trusted Contacts: In Facebook lingo, Trusted Contacts are friends who can help you if you ever have trouble accessing your account.
For instance, you forget your Facebook password and also can’t get into your email account to reset it. This is where Trusted Contacts come to your rescue to help you gain back control of your Facebook account.

Hackers are known to have changed email IDs (and also phone numbers) associated with a Facebook account, making it even more difficult for a user to regain control.
You can add 3 to 5 friends as Trusted Contacts. So for any reason, if you are unable to sign into your Facebook account or your account gets locked, your trusted contacts can get access to special, one-time security codes from Facebook via a URL. You can then call your friends to get those security codes and use those codes to access your account.
This feature is also placed under Security Settings.
4. Legacy Contact: As death is inevitable, Facebook lets you choose a person who can inherit your account (your online asset storing memories generated over the years) if something happens to you.
In other words, this legacy contact is someone a user chooses to manage his account after he passes away.

According to Facebook, this person will be able to do things like pin a post on your timeline, respond to new friend requests, and update your profile picture. But he won't be able to post as you or see your messages. He will also not be allowed to remove or change past posts, photos and other things shared on your Timeline.
Remember that the legacy contact you choose won't be notified until your account is memorialised, but Facebook gives you an option to send him/her a message.
If the user doesn’t want to have his account memorialised after his death, he can choose “Account Deletion” under Legacy Contact (in Security Settings) to have it permanently deleted after his demise.

5.Privacy settings

When you post something Facebook, you probably don't want all 1 billion users to see it. That means you need to get your post privacy settings right the first time.
First, navigate to your settings page again by clicking the arrow and then "Settings" again.

Now click the "Privacy" tab on the left, and you should see a bunch of options. Clicking the "Edit" button will give you a drop-down menu where you can select the options which best suit your needs.

I'm going to give you a quick rundown of what every setting means.

• Who can see your future posts? Facebook has long since defaulted to "Friends" for this, but if you have an older account it might still be set to "Everyone." If that's the case, change it. You can even go a step further and select "Close Friends" if you only want to specific people to see your posts unless you say otherwise.
• Limit the audience of your past posts: You will probably want to do this if you haven't already. If you started a Facebook account before 2010, then the content you posted will be available for all to see. This option is a quick way to restrict your posts to just your friends. Just note that if you want something available to everyone, you'll need to go back and change that post individually.
• Who can send you friend requests? This all depends on how you want to be found. If you pick "Friends of Friends" then only people in your social circle will be able to add you on Facebook. "Everyone" is OK if you want old friends and classmates to be able to friend you. However, people might try to scam you if you let anyone send you a friend request, so watch out.
• Who can look up the email address/phone number you provided? By default, anyone can find you by searching your email address or phone number on Facebook. You can make it so only friends have this option.
• Do you want search engines to link to your timeline? If your content is publicly visible, then search sites like Google can return your posts in search results. You probably don't want this enabled unless you're a public personality.

 6.Unwanted notifications
If you're hearing more notification sounds than ever before, that's because Facebook has added more things to notify you about. You can get rid of the notification sounds with this helpful tip. If you don't want to hear certain notifications anymore, then read on.
Get on over to the settings screen again by clicking the down arrow and then "Settings."

From there, click the "Notifications" tab on the left and you should see a list of every possible notification you could be receiving. Start by choosing how you get notified. Turning off sounds is a good start.

For what events trigger notifications, I'd recommend turning off "Tags" and also any groups that you don't care about. Every time anyone tags you in a post, you'll be notified and that can get annoying.
You might want to turning on the "Birthdays" option if you want to keep up to date on who needs some well-wishes.