Social Media Safety

Here’s a tip on keeping your data safe when it comes to Facebook. Have you checked your privacy settings lately? Do you know how much of your personal data is being shared? If you don’t, you’re not alone. The settings aren’t easy to find, but easy to follow with this step by step diagram. It’s about opting out of something you might not know you’re opted into!

If you have been concerned about the use of your data on social media, you should be concerned.
When Cambridge Analytics was able to access many of Facebook’s profiles (like 30 million,
possibly 50 million people) it was discovered that many of us thought they were protected and were not.
It’s a shame that you even have to think about this. No one really wants to scroll through complicated
settings to be sure their privacy is in order. Nor do we want to honestly admit that greedy data seeking companies cannot be trusted with your personal information. Unfortunately Facebook does allow third parties to infringe upon our privacy in a larger scale that most of us realize. Yes, regulators and legislators are scrambling to distinguish the implications and place limits on these companies. This leaves millions of users now responsible for their own profiles and to be sure they are set up properly. It is proof that there is a violation on behalf of Facebook and their terms of service and that their API was not structure correctly for the safety of the end user (you!) It’s not a data breach, it’s a design flaw, an infrastructure design flaw that Facebook designed!

This news shows us and should remind us of the true risks users face when they enter their personal information. Without their knowledge is is captured, being analyzed, stored forever and shared among data brokers, companies, marketers and social media companies.

So, why aren’t tech companies doing more to protect users? This means giving users more control over exactly what information is being collected about them and how this data is being used. It beings with essential transparency. Users should have the ability to leave a social site that no longer serves them, and be able to take their data with them. Regrettably this is not something we can do. We can’t take back or wipe out all of our information that is floating around out there on the internet.

Here’s what you can do. If you no longer want your data/personal information going through Facebook’s API. You can fix that yourself and take back control of your privacy by disabling your platform apps. Please note that this disables other apps like Farmville, Twitter and Instagram and you will not be able to log into those programs with your Facebook login information. Disabling the platform will mean that you will not be able to use the apps that connect with Facebook, (Games and apps that hold Facebook credentials, you won’t be able to use Facebook instant personalization tools either).

If disabling the platform feels like too much, you have another thing you can do. You can limit the personal information you’ve authorized by limiting the personal information accessible by apps that others use.