Facebook’s controversial new security measures were designed to increase user control over privacy; however, privacy advocates charge these changes were mostly an underhanded method to release large amounts of private data (mostly photos and fan data) to the public. Additionally, Facebook’s 350 million users must now go through a more convoluted process to protect their personal information from third party developers who lure users with their addictive games and surveys.
While the world’s leading social network recently backed down on enticing users with their deceptive “Recommended Settings”, there are still several areas where user data may be vulnerable to third party snooping. Here are 4 steps ever user should take to protect their personal information.
#4– Don’t let Friends Give Away your Private Information
Prevent friends from inadvertently giving away your personal details to an application on their profile.
How:
On the top menu toolbar, select Settings -> Privacy Settings
Select Applications and Websites
Click on the Edit Settings button, located beside the title “What your friends can share about you“
Uncheck every option under the title “What your friends can share about you through applications and websites ”. Click on the Save Changes button.
Why:
Unfortunately, Facebook users must worry about the bad habits of friends as well as themselves. This “feature” is touted as a virtue on the security settings page:
When your friend visits a Facebook-enhanced application or website, they may want to share certain information to make the experience more social. For example, a greeting card application may use your birthday information to prompt your friend to send a card.
However, virtually anyone can become a Facebook developer just by downloading the development guide, and it is safe to assume that not all of them are solely interested in enhancing your user experience. If you don’t specifically uncheck the items in the list above, they can be shared with third party sites by way of your friends’ applications – even if you have set the information to to viewable only by friends or yourself.
Note that all information you’ve specifically set to public can still be read and analyzed by third party applications and websites. But more on that later.
Continue reading ‘4 Ways to Protect your Facebook Data under the “Improved” Security’
Recent Comments