We’ve talked in the past about the importance of creating secure passwords, enabling two-factor authentication on your major accounts, and other ways to protect yourself from losing access to your various online accounts. Here’a a simple one for Facebook that’s a one-time setup and offers you some additional security: add ‘Trusted Contacts’ to your account. These are 3-5 people you specify in advance as being people you trust (your spouse, your sibling, etc), that if you ever lose access to your account, or forget the password, they can access a one-time code to help you get back into your account. Here’s Facebook’s instructions on how to enable this: https://www.facebook.com/help/119897751441086.
While you’re at it, it’s not a bad idea to set a Legacy Contact for Facebook. Legacy Contacts are someone you appoint to manage your Facebook account if you pass away. A verified family member can request that your page be turned into a “memorialized state” so that people can post remembrances of you, but nobody can log into your account, and the Legacy Contact is someone who can help administer this process. For more information about it, see this site https://www.facebook.com/help/1070665206293088?helpref=faq_content. It might be grim to think about, but we all know someone still on Facebook with an active page even though they might not be with us anymore. This process protects the account from malicious attacks or hijacked postings that could deemphasize your remembrance on Facebook (nobody wants to see “I used this one trick to help lose 10 lbs fast” in-between your family and friends posting memories of you).
Take a moment to set these up and reach out to your less techie friends & family!
