Recently, Facebook announced on their site “A Continued Commitment to Security” that they would be enabling a secure HTTPS connection, thus translating into all Facebook data will be protected.

Secure connection was only used previously to protect user names and passwords. With the new security connection update, Facebook users now have the option to make ALL their data they transmit secure. And for those of you utilizing open wifi networks, this is for you.

This option may or may not be available on your account, but it soon will.

Follow these steps to make your site secure:

• Log in to Facebook and click Account in the top right corner of the page.

• Select Account Settings and scroll down to Account Security.

• Click Change and check the box next to Secure Browsing.

• You can also view all account activity, so check back regularly to see if someone is accessing your account without your permission

However, there are a few things you should keep in mind before deciding to enable HTTPS, per the Facebook post:

Encrypted pages take longer to load, so you may notice that Facebook is slower using HTTPS. In addition, some Facebook features, including many third-party applications, are not currently supported in HTTPS. We’ll be working hard to resolve these remaining issues. We are rolling this out slowly over the next few weeks, but you will be able to turn this feature on in your Account Settings soon. We hope to offer HTTPS as a default whenever you are using Facebook sometime in the future.

From our perspective, if security is your main issue, do this and do this now.

But understand why your connection might be compromised if you are using third-party apps.

Learn more about Facebook and other workshops at Geek Girl Boot Camp Cape Cod 2011 on March 19th!