BTW, if your friends don't do this, they may be sharing information about you.
This sentence isn't true.

Instant personalization, if you don't disable it, shares your fb info such as location, interests, etc. with partner websites.

Your friends cannot share your info if you don't allow it.

Everyone should click on account at the top right corner of their page - then look at and change the settings for each and every one of your account settings and privacy settings.
Don't forget to look at all of your account settings as well as your privacy settings.

Customize your Privacy Settings

Click on everything - you won't break anything.
I use custom privacy on all of my settings.

It's a good idea to check all of your settings at least once a month just to see if there are new applications or settings you don't know about and haven't taken control of.

Click 'Customize Settings' above Block Lists

Go through every setting on the page

Choose your level of privacy

Edit your settings for applications and websites

From your privacy page, click on 'Applications and Websites' in the bottom right corner.

Choose your level of privacy, disable, or enable

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You can also customize the privacy on your status/posts

It's also not a bad idea to sort your fb 'friends' into lists such as family, work, neighbors, farmville, etc.
That way you can control who sees and can do what just by typing in a list name.
This comes in handy if you feel that you *need* to friend co-workers or others, you can control what they can see or do on your page if anything at all - don't worry, they won't know what you did.

Create Lists for friends

Click 'Home' in the top right corner

Now click on 'Friends'

Click 'Edit Friends'

Click 'Create List'

Now, just name your list and choose who belongs on it and then click 'Create List'.

I'm always amazed at the number of random people I click on who have absolutely no privacy on their pages.

joanie b - thanks for putting in the time and effort to post such comprehensive info.

I think I'm one of those who has not enabled any privacy controls on FB. Just have always been extremely careful about what I post on FaceBook -- and everywhere else for that matter. I can see how the list feature would be darn handy though.

Great info!

I just did it, I had not seen Alert though, so it took me a while to figure it out and find it, yup, it was enabled.

Thanks for the tips above, it made me go and double check all my privacy settings.

Thanks for the heads-up, Graywings. I've had my privacy settings on max for a long time now, but I've gotten a bit lax in rechecking their settings periodically. You're right, it's good to recheck FB's settings routinely in case, like this, they've changed something.
Joanie, you are so thoughtful to have taken the time to post the how-to's. Thank you!

May I make one more suggestion? Please check your PHOTOBUCKET privacy settings, as well. This is another good site, but one where you and your pics may not be as private as you think. Be thorough and check all the settings.
Lynn

Thanks everyone :))
And, as Lynn said, check your Photobucket settings too.
In fact, check your settings on all of the online forums and other social media you use.