100 million Facebook users' personal information is available to public

TAMPA - If you have a Facebook page, there's a good chance your personal information has now been made public to people who aren't remotely connected to you.

That's exactly what happened to some 100 million Facebook users when a man gathered personal information, publicly available on their pages, and combined it into one massive file available on www.thepiratebay.org .

When it comes to social networking sites and emails, online security consultant Larry Petty, with Tribridge Security of Tampa, lives by a simple mantra.

"Don’t post anything online you don't want others to see," Petty said.

"It can be used for harmful things, it can be used for marketing, spam or marketers calling to sell you something."

It's Petty's job to secure corporations online data, but he saaid people have a lot of data too--- including interests, address, phone numbers.

"Pictures or any of this other information you've posted can now be open to anybody that's looking for it or passed on to friends of friends or inadvertently given to other people."

So protecting yourself online is job number one.

"Facebook has gone back and forth with their security settings they have. They change so often that people forget to check them," she said.

Petty suggests checking your privacy settings at least once a month.

Next regularly view how your profile can be viewed by the public, people who aren't your friends.

We took a quick look at my public profile and Petty did have a warning about my visible connections.

“If they click on your husband or your brother or sister and they're not locked down, you've given them a door to go to their pages," Petty warned.

So remind your friends to protect themselves too and keep in mind, if you want to keep something private, don't post it.