According to CNET, social networking website Facebook yesterday announced a new security feature that will enable users to remotely check if other computers have logged into their account and also to log out remotely themselves.

This feature is aimed particularly at those who share computers, utilise internet cafes or simply don’t remember to log out properly. Sometimes users inadvertently leave their Facebook accounts open when leaving the computer, enabling the next person that comes around to access their profile.

This is particularly possible when users select the ‘keep me logged in’ button. When this feature is enabled simply closing the browser or even shutting down the machine won’t be enough to log you out of Facebook. Users will need to manually log out by the traditional way otherwise their browser will remember their account details every time they log on.

Using the new feature, Facebook users will be able to click on the ‘Account’ tab at the top of their page, click on ‘Account Settings’ and then access the ‘Account Security’ area. Here users will be provided with a list of recent activity on their accounts. This will include the last time the account was accessed, which device was used to access it, where it is located and even the browser and operating system used to access the account.

Facebook hopes this will enable users to quickly and easily identify possible threats to their accounts and to see where the threat originated. This way, users can distinguish between a friend or sibling toying with their account as a joke, or something more serious such as cyber criminals using the account to spread spam for example.

In addition to providing users with the tools to identify unauthorised account access, users can also click on ‘end activity’ to log a certain device off. This can work both ways though, so be sure to keep those passwords updated and secret.

The new feature is aimed to work hand in hand with another recently launched security feature that enables users to instruct Facebook to notify them (via email or SMS) when a different device has logged into their account.