You use Facebook to stay in touch with family and friends. You probably also use it to keep in contact with business acquaintances. So, you need to strike the right balance between openness and privacy.

Facebook has long been known for its excellent privacy tools. But it recently made changes that expose more of your information. Search sites can find your Facebook pages. Coworkers may be able to see your photos. It’s important to review your privacy settings.

Facebook considers certain items in your profile publicly available information. Your profile photo, location, fan pages and friends list are open to all. But you can make some of this private.

To hide your friend list, click the blue pencil in your Friends box. Uncheck “Show Friend List to everyone.” Only friends will see your list.

You can hide your location if you choose. You can also control who sees your other contact information. Click Settings>>Privacy Settings. Click Contact Information.

You’ll see your contact information. Use the dropdown menus to select your privacy level for the items. To hide your location, leave Current City blank.

It is also important to set the privacy level for other elements that appear on your profile. Click Settings>>Privacy Settings and select Profile Information.