Facebook.com and its founder Mark Zuckerberg have been taking a lot of heat lately for their approach to privacy matters. Given its meteoric growth, Facebook deserves the scrutiny, and indeed there are many things it can (and does) do to ensure its users know what’s what when it comes to privacy.

First, it should (and often does) post prominent reminders to its users to check privacy preferences. Facebook tends to do this when it has changed something, or in response to major blunders, but doing so proactively and regularly will help users keep their own security top-of-mind.

At some point, though, we as consumers/users need to start taking more responsibility for the security of our own data. Just like there was a time when most Americans went to bed at night leaving their doors and windows unlocked, we eventually realized the risk (in an increasingly dangerous world) and began taking more precaution. It is a burden, afterall, to have to walk around the apartment and make sure both the backdoor and front are locked, but we take that time because the effort seems minuscule when compared to the sense of security it provides. And just so, quickly jumping to the privacy setting page of our Facebook account and making sure that, yes, only friends can see photos of me, can give us that same warm-fuzzy.

Facebook offers very good and simple privacy controls. As participants in this ever-expanding global network, it’s time we stopped complaining and started taking a little more responsibility.

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