Facebook gets a lot of backlash about privacy and a lot of people get their Facebook account hacked. But, they have been working constantly on this area and now have a very good feature set when it comes to security. The kind we are used to with Gmail.
One-time passwords
Facebook just started to roll out a new feature – one-time passwords. If you are wary of using your Facebook account in public computers or on free wifi in airports, you could now just text ‘otp’ to 32665 from your mobile phone (the one you have on your Facebook account) and get a one-time password via a text message.
This one-time password is valid only for 20 minutes. So, you don’t have to worry about changing your password after using it in a place you are wary of.
This feature is just being rolled out so you may have to wait a bit to see it in action.
More Security Features
A few of these features have been there for a while and some are being added now.
- You can view recent activity on your account and see where it originated from. It also has more info like location, device name, time and device type. You can also end activity on a certain login. This is basically remotely killing your Facebook session if you think it is not you.
- The remote kill feature is also very useful if you logged in from a friends’ computer or mobile or a public terminal and forgot to logout.
Make sure you are aware of these security features in Facebook and they could come in handy should you suspect any unauthorized activity on your account.
🙂