A lot of Facebook users include their phone number(s) in their personal profile information. Facebook makes this information easily available by accessing your “friends” page. If you click the “Phonebook” link a listing of all your friends and their numbers will be displayed. A pretty convenient feature if you need a quick number, huh?

The default setting for your contact information is set to “Friends.” I know a lot of people that will accept a friend request from just about anyone. If you include your phone number in your profile, it is not a good idea to accept friend requests from casual acquaintances or people you don’t know at all. How many of us are guilty of adding someone as a friend because we see that we have several mutual friends in common? This is a common ploy of Facebook scammers. They infiltrate networks of friends and then glean as much information as possible from profile information, status updates, etc. Your phone number in the hands of the wrong person could potentially cause you all sorts of problems. You could be bullied or harassed. If you list your land line, then they could even find out where you live. Facebook is known for having confusing privacy settings and sometimes the default settings can change. Be a responsible Facebook netizen and take proper precautions to protect your privacy and safety.