* Never expect absolute privacy. Know what you’re getting into by reading the privacy statement and policies. Many sites allow all registered users to view all the information you post on your site with no exceptions.
* Before you join a site and post your profile, find out if you can join a closed network, where only those with an email address from your school can register, for example. Find out if the site allows others to see your profile without your consent.
* Choose the highest and most restrictive security setting available and do not give out information like your birthday, full name, phone number, Social Insurance Number or address.
* Take a second to think about what you’re posting about yourself and your friends. Is it something you would post if your professor, boss, kid sister or arch rival was standing right behind you? Even though we tend to think about our personal sites as private, in reality, many can be seen by just about anyone. Is there information about you that is embarrassing or that fraudsters could use? Remember that what you post could be online forever.
* Keep in mind that even sites with extensive privacy options may be required to make your personal information available to certain authorized persons, including law enforcement agencies. Actually, you might want to remember to call your parents regularly before they resort to checking your Facebook page for updates.

But it also means that disenchanted users cannot disappear from the site without leaving footprints. Facebook’s terms of use state that “you may remove your user content from the site at any time,” but also that “you acknowledge that the company may retain archived copies of your user content.”

Its privacy policy says that after someone deactivates an account, “removed information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time.”

Facebook’s Web site does not inform departing users that they must delete information from their account in order to close it fully — meaning that they may unwittingly leave anything from e-mail addresses to credit card numbers sitting on Facebook servers.

Some members discover it’s tough to erase all their information from the site.

Are you worried about your information staying on the Internet forever?

Warning: all information provided to Facebook (including photos) is willfully released into the public domain, for unlimited use by all individuals with no expectation of privacy. Information available on Facebook may be accessed by parents, teachers and administrators (including for disciplinary purposes), police, and present and future employers. Users are advised to keep this under consideration.

Of course, they may end up with a few fewer subscribers, as well as less dramatic party photos being uploaded.