If you’ve been paying attention to the news of late you’re probably aware of the recent data breaches in which third-party groups mined Facebook user data for use in political campaigns.
Well guess what? You might have given those groups permission to mine your data without even realizing it.
Have you ever signed up for an online account and opted to log in to that account with your Facebook credentials instead of creating an account with that website?
If so, you gave that company permission to access your Facebook user data AND you gave Facebook permission to share it with them.
That’s right – simply by choosing to sign in to a third-party website using your Facebook credentials gives that company permission to mine your Facebook user data.
And use it they will. And yes, that includes the use of any of your personal photos that have their privacy level set to public!
The things these companies will use your data for are supposed to be spelled out in their privacy policy, but that isn’t always the case. And even if they are spelled out there, most people don’t take the time to read the privacy policy anyway. Do you?
In a nutshell, every time you sign into a third-party website with your Facebook credentials you’re putting your personal information at risk.
What’s more, this problem isn’t limited just to third-party websites. It also applies to any apps that you enable on your Facebook account.
Remember that quiz you took last week that you couldn’t take until you enabled an app?
Well, the company behind that app (and quiz) probably has whatever personal information you entrusted to Facebook on their own servers right now.
If your phone number and mailing address is listed on Facebook you can probably expect to start receiving telemarketing calls and junk mail at your home before long.
And if your email address is listed you’re probably already on a dozen spammer’s email lists!
Now, for another little tidbit of news…
The websites and apps you allow to access your Facebook account can scan your status updates, the links you’ve posted and the pages you liked to develop various profiles on you.
For example, are you a Republican or a Democrat? Liberal or conservative? Wealthy, middle class or just scraping by?
The status updates you post, the links you share and even the pages you like can help a company determine exactly where you fall on the political and economic spectrums.
And guess what? Marketers, spammers and crooks of all stripes are willing to pay big bucks for that information about you!
Unfortunately, it’s too late to protect your data from the companies that you’ve already allowed to access your Facebook account. They already have your information.
But you can limit the damage and prevent any future breaches by following the steps listed below…
First, log into your Facebook account and change the default privacy level of your Facebook posts from “Public” to “Friends”. This post explains how to do that.
Next, set the privacy level of your phone number, birth date and email address on your “About” page to “Only Me”. Just follow the steps below for the device you’re using:
If you’re using a laptop or desktop computer…
1 – Click on your name to to display your Timeline page, then click the About link.
2 – Hover your mouse over your birth date, then click the Edit your contact and basic info link that pops up.
3 – Change the privacy level of your phone number, birth date and email address to Only Me.
If you’re using the Facebook app on a mobile device…
1 – Scroll down to the status update box (the box where you would post a status update, post a photo or paste a link) and tap your photo to display your Timeline screen.
2 – Scroll down and tap the About link.
3 – Scroll down and tap Contact info.
4 – Scroll down and change the privacy level of your phone number, birth date and email address to Only Me.
Next, follow the steps listed in this post to disable any apps that you don’t recognize, any apps you don’t use or any apps that are connected to any third-party website.
Note: I don’t allow ANY apps to be enabled on my own Facebook account for the reasons mentioned above. Therefore I have disabled ALL app access to my account.
Yes, that means I can’t take any quizzes, play any games or do anything else that requires the use of an app, but I’m fine with that because the privacy of my personal info is very important to me.
If you feel the same way you can easily prevent apps from being enabled on your account at all with a single privacy setting. Just follow the steps below for your device:
If you’re using a laptop or desktop computer…
1 – Log into your Facebook account and click the down arrow located on the right side of the blue bar at the top of the window.
2 – Click Settings.
3 – Click the Apps link over in the left-hand column.
4 – Find the Apps, Websites and Plugins section and click the Edit link.
5 – Click the Disable Platform button.
If you’re using the Facebook app on a mobile device…
1 – Tap the Menu icon (it looks like either three horizontal lines or three vertical dots, depending on which device and version of the app you’re using).
2 – Scroll down and tap Settings and Privacy.
3 – Tap Account Settings.
4 – Tap Apps.
5 – Tap Platform.
6 – Tap the Edit link in the App and Websites section, then tap Turn off Platform.
Bottom line: Using your Facebook credentials to log into third party websites puts any personal information you have on Facebook at risk while also allowing that company to develop various profiles on you.
That’s why you should always opt to create an account with that website instead of logging in with Facebook when you’re given that choice.
If you MUST log in to a site via Facebook (i.e that’s the only option available to you), I strongly recommend that you avoid using that site altogether.
Enabling apps on your Facebook account also gives those apps access to any of your personal Facebook information that are set to “Public”.
If you’re going to be using any apps I strongly recommend that you set the privacy level of your posts to “Friends” and your personal information and contact info to “Only Me”.
Bonus tip #1: Click here to check out some of the other scams that are making the rounds right now.
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