This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

It happens all the time: hackers take control of Facebook accounts and their rightful owners can’t log in to get them back.

Follow Rich DeMuro on Instagram for more tech news, tips and tricks.

To keep this from happening to you, take a minute to set up a little known Facebook feature called Trusted Contacts to protect you.

It works by pre-selecting 3-5 friends. Then, if you ever get locked out of your account because a hacker takes over and changes your password, Facebook will send those friends a special code.

You can then contact these friends in real life to get the code and enter it into a recovery link.

Facebook knows you are the rightful owner of the account and hands you back control.

Here’s how to set it up!

Facebook mobile app:

  • Open the Facebook app on your phone
  • Tap the three lines in the lower right-hand corner (iOS) or upper right-hand corner (Android)
  • Scroll down and tap Settings & Privacy
  • Tap Settings
  • Scroll down and tap Security & Login
  • Scroll and look for the option to “Choose 3 to 5 friends to contact if you get locked out”
  • Then follow the prompts to set up your Trusted Contacts

Desktop:

  • Make sure you’re logged into your Facebook account and go here
  • Scroll down to the section labeled “Setting Up Extra Security”
  • Click the option to “Choose 3 to 5 friends to contact if you get locked out”

That’s all there is to it. I also highly recommend setting up two-factor authentication for your Facebook account. This will verify all logins to your account with special code texted to your phone.

If you like tips like this, listen to the Rich on Tech podcast! It’s where I talk about the tech news you should know and answer the questions you send me. Listen here.