How to turn on Facebook Protect

Last weekend, I was scrolling through my email, listening to the rain and wondering whether I was feeling too lazy to vacuum the rug, when I came across one with the subject line “Turn on Facebook Protect.”

“Your account requires advanced security from Facebook Protect,” it said and proceeded to tell me that if I didn’t enable Facebook Protect by a certain date, I would be locked out of my account until I enabled it. I was instructed to click on the big blue button labeled “Turn on Facebook Protect” to get started.

I was sure it was a phishing email. Until I found out it wasn’t.

It turned out that Facebook is pushing higher security for “certain people in the public eye,” and so is encouraging those on its list to adopt...