Social networking sites help you stay connected with friends and family near and far. However, if you aren’t careful, it can also be a bit like posting your personal information and photos on every billboard in town. That's why you should take advantage of the powerful privacy settings.

One strategy is to limit accessibility to your online information. On Facebook, remove yourself from search results by selecting “Only Friends” under “Search Visibility” on the Search Privacy Settings Page. On MySpace, you can customize a variety of privacy settings like whether people can link to your photos, comment on your blog, and more.

Also using privacy settings, on Facebook, use the “List” feature to determine who will access personal photos, wall posts, status updates and photos where you were tagged.

And if you’re worried about just one individual contacting you or viewing your information, you can block specific people by name on Facebook. Go to Privacy Settings, and the blocking feature is the bottom option. On MySpace, to block a person, click on their profile photo, click on their profile name, and choose “Block User” from the drop-down menu.