Lots of people give an extra set of house keys to close friends or family in case they get locked out. So why not have a similar way of dealing with those times when you’re locked out of your Facebook account?

Basically, Trusted Contacts allows you to pick three people you know, love, trust, etc. — ideally, someone you have actually met — to designate as a contact for when you’re locked out. These contacts are then notified of their status and responsibilities.

When you do get locked out, Facebook provides each of these three people with a code, which they then pass on to you. Once you have the three codes, you use them to unlock your account.

Facebook had already tried something similar, dubbed Trusted Friends, back in 2011, but that system did not notify your trusted friends in advance. Obviously, this can cause a problem when that contact suddenly gets a message about some code they’ve never heard of.

Trusted Contacts can be turned on in the security settings of your Facebook account.

Facebook puts a friendly spin on password security with launch of Trusted Contacts [GigaOm]

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