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Your Facebook account. Public or private, its contents define you in a professional, commercial and social nature. Your photos are keepsakes, and personal messages can be confidential exchanges. Either way, it's an identity you want to protect.

But you probably aren't doing everything you can to secure your account. You can carry Facebook everywhere on your phone, but is it safe? Facebook Mobile leaves you more susceptible to attempted hijackings and identity theft.

Here are five ways to make sure there's more than a phone case between you and a potential intruder.

1. Lock your device.

Obvious? Maybe, but more than 30% of people don't use passwords to protect their mobile devices.

This is your first line of defense if your phone is lost or stolen. You should always have a passcode or pattern on your phone — not only to protect your Facebook account, but for other sensitive information, too. Think of the work emails, important documents, banking info and more you're leaving exposed on an unprotected phone.

If you have an iPhone and it's already locked, but you'd like to go one step further, put a stronger passcode on your phone. Look in General Settings > Passcode Lock. Turn off the Simple Passcode option (which limits you to four digits) and create a longer code that suits you.

You can also set your phone to delete its data after a number of failed attempts to break the passcode.

2. Use a different password for email and Facebook accounts.

Three-quarters of web users select a single password for all their sign-in purposes, and the most common codes are often the most obvious ("123456" and "password" are favorites). A few more digits, letters or symbols can drastically increase the time it takes to crack your password. Take the time to invent multiple passwords for your accounts, especially for Facebook, which houses tons of personal info.

3. Make sure Secure Browsing is on.

Facebook has offered a secure browsing option since 2011. Without an HTTP Secure (HTTPS) connection, your data is open to sneak attacks any time you use free Wi-Fi (i.e., in a Starbucks or hotel lobby).

There's one downside: HTTPS encryption can slow down your Facebook experience, already a common complaint on mobile. Avoid unprotected Wi-Fi and use your provider's 3G/4G service to prevent potential breaches.

4. Enable login notifications and approvals.

To ensure your account is only accessed when and where you determine, enable this feature. Facebook will send you a notification every time your account is accessed from a new location (you'll have to provide a mobile number for texts, if you haven't yet).

After you assign names to your most-used devices, you'll get a warning if someone enters your account on an unfamiliar computer, phone or tablet. And if someone breaches your account, you'll receive instructions for resetting your password and securing your account.

Similar to two-step verification, login approvals will ask you for a special code every time you try to access your account from a new device.

5. Use "Trusted Contacts."

This recent innovation from Facebook asks you to select a small group of reliable friends. In the event you can't access your account, and even security questions aren't helping, Facebook will send different codes to these friends. When you put them together, you can get back in.

That means you should select the friends you know you can contact quickly. You should also choose someone who won't mind sending you a code at the drop of a hat. This option is labor-intensive for you and others, but it's a good last-ditch at getting into your account if it's been compromised.

What would you Do to safeguard your Facebook account? Let us know in the comments.

Google × Technology

Technology × Tricks

Microsoft's Bing search engine just got even more inventive, creating a strange new world where no web geek has gone before. To take a unique trip, simply type "beam me up" in the Bing search engine, and see what happens.

Once you've been beamed up, click on any of the designated hotspots. You'll hear realistic Starfleet-regulation sound effects as you're transported to a variety of locations throughout the universe. Each of those destinations offers links to Star Trek trivia, clips from the series and a lot more.

As we suspected, Bing designers are "huge Star Trek fans," according to Stephanie Horstmanshof, Bing's senior lead managing editor. "We really looked at this project as a love letter to Star Trek fans," she told. "We had so much fun brainstorming ideas for the various levels of the experience."

She says the team liked creating the hotspots the best, coming up with a plethora of content. She continued, "It was actually tough to narrow down our final content because we had so many ideas."

Our favorite? "Bad Star Trek Props," where you can see, for example, the magic that art directors from the 1960s could perform with tinfoil. Oh, and of course, there's the classic Riker sitting trick, now affectionately known as #Rikering (it's a thing), showing you the quickest way to get from a standing position into any chair with the minimum amount of effort.

Horstmanshof told us the team especially enjoyed coming up with the “Easter Eggs” for the project, which we'll leave to you, readers, to find. "We even originally included a word that would have been a pretty big spoiler for the film (no, we won't say it here), so we took that one out during our conversations with the Star Trek team."

This is not the first foray for Bing into the Star Trek universe, where in preparation for Thursday's debut of Star Trek Into Darkness, Microsoft's search engine learned how to translate Klingon.

If you're going to see the movie's debut on Thursday night, Bing might be one of your stops to help you brush up on your Star Trek trivia. Let us know in the comments what you think of Microsoft's clever search-engine creation.

Events × Google × Google+ × Technology

Google has completed its mammoth 3-hour I/O 2013 keynote, and many announcements were made. We’ve compiled a handy list so you can catch up and make sure you haven’t missed anything.

Google announces 900 million Android activations, 48 billion apps downloaded

there have been more than 900 million Android activations in total
48 billion apps have been downloaded on Android
2.5 billion apps are installed every month

Google’s new App Translation service lets developers get pro localization services right in Console

developers will now be able to request their apps to be translated directly in the Developer Console, making the process easier and faster

Google announces beta testing and staged rollouts to help app developers pilot new features

a new feature for developers will facilitate alpha testing within apps
the feature allows developers to pick a percentage of users that will get an update, in order to alpha test it, before sending it out to the rest of the users

Google announces Android Studio: An IDE built just for Android developers

an integrated developer environment, set to replace Eclipse, has been announced. It will be called Android Studio.
Google also announced cloud messaging will be integrated into the platform
the aim behind Studio is to help developers be faster and more productive

Cross-platform Google Play games services unveiled with cloud saving, achievements and multiplayer

a new set of APIs have been released, targeted at game developers specifically
the games platform will allow users to save their progress on the cloud, meaning they can leave and pick up from different devices
leaderboards will be created, linked with users’ Google+ accounts and permitting friends to connect in particular circles

Google Cloud Messaging now supports persistent connections, upstream messaging, and notification sync

Google Play services will now have Cloud Messaging (GCM) integration
persistent connections, upstream messaging and notification synchronisation are all additions that will be brought to the service
Google revealed it is sending 200,000 push messages every second, or 17 billion messages a day

Google reveals unlocked Samsung Galaxy S4 running stock Android, coming to Google Play for $649 on June 26

a version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 running the Nexus OS has been revealed
the phone will be sold via Google Play from June 26 at $649 a piece

New Google Play Music All Access subscription service at $9.99/mo with 30 day trial available in US today

Google is launching a new music streaming service
the service will cost you $9.99 per month, or $7.99 if you take a subscription by June 30. There is also a free 30-day trial period
songs will be updated according to user tastes and preferences, and songs can be removed from playlists with a simple swipe motion

Google Play for Education: Google goes after Apple’s K-12 stranglehold with cheap apps, tablets

Google has announced a store aimed at, and curated for, young children
the Google Play for Education will have apps sorted by age and genre
Administrators of accounts will be able to push out apps to multiple devices in one go

Google is giving a free Chromebook Pixel to all I/O attendees

all attendees of this morning’s keynote were told they would be receiving a free Chromebook Pixel

Google announces 41 new Google+ features including Pinterest-like card-based Stream

Google+ is getting 41 new features affecting the Stream, Hangouts and Photos sections
Stream is getting a new, multi-column design, which will be going live today, though if you do not like the new layout you will be able to go back to single-column view
one of the new features will let you click on pictures to flip them over and reveal related pictures under the same hashtag. Users will be able to opt their pictures out of the feature

Google+ Photos gets automatic photo combiner and Gif maker Auto Awesome

Auto Awesome is a new feature that automatically combines pictures together in order to create new ones
it will be able to create gifs by linking multiple images with each other
it will also have an automatic panorama option, creating panoramic photos from pictures taken side by side

Google launches Hangouts, a new unified, cross-platform messaging service for iOS, Android and Chrome

Hangouts is a new messaging service that replaces the current multiple services Google offers
it has launched today and is available as an app for iOS, Android and Chrome
in Hangouts you can start one-on-one or group conversations.

Google’s new Google+ photo features: 15GB full-size storage, Auto Highlight, Auto Enhance and more

new features were announced for photos on Google+, notably that you will now get 15GB free storage for full-size pictures, as well as unlimited space for standard resolution images
an Auto Highlight feature will automatically decide which of your pictures are the best and put them at the forefront
Auto Enhance will automatically make your pictures the best they can be with some smart editing

Google previews next version of Google Maps for iOS and Android, including an iPad app coming this summer

over 1 million sites use Google Maps
a new version of the app, to run on the iPad, was teased
the new version will incorporate a new suggestion engine to help you find relevant places nearby
it will also have life traffic incident reporting and re-routing features

Google unveils new Google Maps for desktop with unified imagery, new interface, live 3D and more

the desktop version of Google Maps is getting a new version, that includes an improved interface, imagery and services unification, and more a personalised experience
this new version of maps will be tailored to individual users, using the same data Google Now employs
images from Google Earth, Street View and special projects will all be available from one place
WebGL is used to augment the new views and produce a more interactive and detailed imagery

Google CEO Larry Page speaks at I/O about competition and negativity in innovation

CEO Larry Page shared some personal stories up on stage, as well as his views on the importance of technology
he also went on about the products are being created at Google, and the drawbacks of negativity

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Our Posts

Google × Google+

Google × Tricks

facebook × Tips

1. Lock your device.

2. Use a different password for email and Facebook accounts.

3. Make sure Secure Browsing is on.

4. Enable login notifications and approvals.

5. Use "Trusted Contacts."

Google × Technology

Technology × Tricks

Events × Google × Google+ × Technology

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