Step 1: Change your profile picture
One
privacy precaution Facebook added is an updated cropping tool. Up until
recently, the site's cropping tool didn't actually crop your profile
picture, it just cropped your picture for the small version and
displayed the full photo when you clicked on the thumbnail. Now, the
cropping tool crops both your small photo and your full-size photo into a square (of two different sizes, of course). Just
be aware that if you're using a profile photo cropped with Facebook's
old tool, people will still be able to see the full, uncropped image
when they click on it. That could be a problem if you were strategically
cropping something out. If that's the case for you, consider deleting
the photo and uploading it again. Step 2: Use a small photo
If
you don't want your high-res photo splashed all over the Internet, crop
and resize it prior to uploading it. Using an imaging tool such as
Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Paint, crop your photo into a square and
then resize it to 180 by 180 pixels. When
you upload it to Facebook, it will be just a hair larger than the small
version of your profile picture, and when people click on it, they
won't get a blown-up version.
Step 3: Change the individual privacy settings of your current and past profile pics
By
default, all of your profile pictures are public. In other words, not
only can strangers view the full-size version of your current picture,
they also can flip and previous profile photos that you haven't deleted
in their full-size glory.
To change this, open each profile picture and go to Edit, click the privacy button, and under Who should see this?, choose More Options and then click Only Me. You must do this separately for each photo in the album, including your current profile picture.
If you leave your current profile picture set to Public, then strangers will be able to see likes, comments, captions, and other photo data, such as location and tags.