Categories: Privacy

All About the Trusted Contacts Feature on Facebook

If you’ve been on Facebook recently, you may have been encouraged to use to the “Trusted Contacts” feature. It’s one of the many new features that Facebook has been rolling out to increase security on their platform. However, you can also improve the security of your Facebook app by using dfndr security’s social guardian feature to add an extra password to the app. Click here to protect your sensitive social apps from prying eyes:

This Trusted Contacts feature can be a useful tool for getting back into your account when you’ve been locked out, but ultimately it isn’t something you want to rely upon. Here’s a little bit more about the feature, how it works, and what you can do to make sure that you won’t need to use it.

Trusted Contacts: An Introduction
If you’ve ever been locked out of your Facebook account, you know that it’s not an enjoyable experience. Trying to verify your credentials after a hack can be confusing, and it can take up a lot of your time, even ending up in serious frustration. That’s why Facebook introduced the Trusted Contacts feature to help users who have been hacked or whose accounts are performing suspicious activity.

This feature allows users to select three to five contacts (ideally close friends) who can receive a code in the event of a compromised account. Then, they can be the ones to send a special recovery code, and pass it along to you to gain access to your account. The system works as an added layer of security. It’s a way to verify that you’re the one looking to log in to your account at any given time.

The Problem With Trusted Contacts
Some have noted that the program can be frustrating at best to regain access, and others think that it needlessly complicates security. While it’s an ideal system to recover your information, it could already be too late. The best way to prevent losing your information isn’t a preventative measure like Trusted Contacts, but instead to set better passwords, and practice safe browsing to ensure that your account isn’t compromised in the first place.

It’s also important to use dfndr’s social guardian feature to add an extra layer of protection to your account. While the Trusted Contacts feature can help protect you, you can never be too safe when it comes to protecting your online identity.

PSafe Newsroom

The dfndr blog is an informative channel that presents exclusive content on security and privacy in the mobile and business world, with tips to keep users protected. Populated by a select group of expert reporters, the channel has a partnership with dfndr lab's security team. Together they bring you, first-notice news about attacks, scams, internet vulnerabilities, malware and everything affecting cybersecurity.