A Guide to Facebook's Privacy Options

Facebook Inc. (FB) offers many privacy options to its users.

The trick is knowing how to use them.

Click to enlarge (Courtesy: WSJ)It isn't always easy to figure out, or to keep up with the changes the company makes over time.

[More from WSJ.com: When 'Likes' Can Shed Light]

Because of that, many users think that they're sharing information and photos on Facebook with close friends or family—only to find out that they have pretty much opened their lives to the world.

In addition to giving you control over who sees your posts, Facebook offers settings that will help prevent your account from being broken into, keep your name and picture from showing up in ads for products you've liked, and prevent apps from posting on your timeline.

[More from WSJ.com: Harvard Explains Secret Email Search]

Again, these are all valuable tools, but only if you can make sense of them.

So in that spirit, this graphic above points out some of the most important Facebook privacy settings and shows you how to use them.

[More from WSJ.com: Samsung Galaxy S4 Builds Up iPhone-Like Hype]

Facebook last week unveiled a redesign, to be rolled out over the next few weeks, that will change the look of the home page and the placement of privacy and security icons. But the settings themselves will not change.