By default, many privacy settings on Facebook are turned on. Your profile shares you on ads to your Facebook friends, any application you haven't installed can access all of your profile information, etc. What to do? Go crank up your privacy settings! I've outlined the instructions to protect your account and information from third-party applications and ads as much as possible. Pictures are included for free.

First of all, hop over to the privacy screen by clicking in the upper-right corner of any page.

After you do that, you'll see the "Privacy Overview" Page. Select "Applications and Ads" near the middle of the page.

Once the new menu appears, choose "Other Applications" and then un-tick the many boxes that are marked under the "What Other Users Can See" portion of the screen. This is crucial, because this is the information that is available to third-party applications that you have NOT installed on your profile. (In the rare case that you are not using the Facebook Platform, you can turn everything off).

Finally, the ad platform. Facebook has recently started to use your profile as advertisements on your friend's Facebook pages. Annoying, right? Turn it off by clicking on the "Ads" tab and changing the drop-down to "No One" as seen below.

I know this will help a few people out there, and hopefully many. I don't pimp my own pages on Digg, etc (I did that once and learned the error of my ways) but if you wouldn't mind sharing this on the social sites, I think a lot of people would appreciate it. Most people didn't realize how much information was being shared, so I hope this helps you reclaim a sense of protection as you browse the web.

Happy Facebooking.