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How To Protect Your Privacy Without Having To Completely Delete Facebook
March 20, 2018
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If the news over Cambridge Analytica, a voter-profiling company, who worked Donald Trump's presidential campaign and collected private information from 50 million Facebook profiles, bothers you - you're not alone.
And while we cannot insulate 100% of the information we share on Facebook - there are steps to take to protect us from data-harvesting apps and programs.
Not just for our own safety, for our friends, too.
Review Your Facebook Apps
On Facebook mobile tap the horizontal lines icon (they are on the top of your screen for Android, bottom for iPhone.)
Click Settings; then Apps; then "Logged in with Facebook" to see products, services (and embarrassing quizzes) accessing your account and collecting data:
Something important to note on the page (above) where you tap "Logged in with Facebook," be sure to disable "Apps others use." This is supposed to protect your data from friends who can't resist quizzes (and other features).
Go through each third-party app you no longer use and remove.
As you'll see, the data grab runs from our religious and political views, how we describe ourselves, what we like, our relationships; and it's taking our friends intel, too, if they have not disabled data collection from apps others use.
Review Privacy Settings
Another step is to limit exposure of current posts, older posts, as well as whether or not you want search engines outside of Facebook linking to your profile. Do this in privacy settings.
While Facebook has displayed arrogance over this story, blaming us - the users - for not understanding those "What Pokemon Are You?" quizzes are really data harvesters, they will have to explain themselves.
Beyond Representatives on Capitol Hill demanding to hear from Mark Zuckerberg over the company's privacy practices, the FTC has opened an investigation to see if Facebook violated a 2011 ruling stating users must give certain and clear permission before data about them is shared.
No doubt more concise communication on data collection will surface from this.
But it's also a good reminder to not 'live' on one platform. It's getting harder to reach the audience on Facebook.
Time to get out there and learn brand use for Twitter, Snapchat or Instagram (even though same company as Facebook - it's a cleaner version.)
Reach out to me anytime on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter.
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