EFF - How To Change Your Facebook Settings To Opt Out of Platform API Sharing

[orangecrush]

How To Change Your Facebook Settings To Opt Out of Platform API Sharing


You shouldn't have to do this. You shouldn't have to wade through complicated privacy settings in order to ensure that the companies with which you've entrusted your personal information are making reasonable, legal efforts to protect it. But Facebook has allowed third parties to violate user privacy on an unprecedented scale, and, while legislators and regulators scramble to understand the implications and put limits in place, users are left with the responsibility to make sure their profiles are properly configured.

Over the weekend, it became clear that Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics company, got access to more than 50 million Facebook users' data in 2014. The data was overwhelmingly collected, shared, and stored without user consent. The scale of this violation of user privacy reflects how Facebook's terms of service and API were structured at the time. Make no mistake: this was not a data breach. This was exactly how Facebook's infrastructure was designed to work.

In addition to raising questions about Facebook's role in the 2016 presidential election, this news is a reminder of the inevitable privacy risks that users face when their personal information is captured, analyzed, indefinitely stored, and shared by a constellation of data brokers, marketers, and social media companies.

Tech companies can and should do more to protect users, including giving users far more control over what data is collected and how that data is used. That starts with meaningful transparency and allowing truly independent researchers—with no bottom line or corporate interest—access to work with, black-box test, and audit their systems. Finally, users need to be able to leave when a platform isn’t serving them — and take their data with them when they do.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/03/how-change-your-facebook-settings-opt-out-platform-api-sharing

Full instructions at link.

[Skittles]

1. ...

does anyone really think these settings mean anything?

[orangecrush]

2. They do

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been battling for internet privacy for a long time, and if they are putting this out there, you can believe it.

They are tech experts on our side.

[eShirl]

6. +1

[dweller]

4. I followed the steps

found 5 apps I had no idea were collecting, and deleted them ... no idea where they came from since I didn't knowingly want or accept them previously

[orangecrush]

11. Great!

Glad it helped!

[sfwriter]

3. I'm not sure it matters.

I'm deleting my account ASAP as this latest news tells us exactly how facebook will treat a data breach.

[Hekate]

5. EFF is a good outfit. Look them up, anybody who doesn't know what they do.

Thanks for the tip, orangecrush.

[ghostsinthemachine]

22. RIP, John Perry Barlow

Grateful Dead songwriter, Bob Weir specifically, was a EFF founder. passed away recently.

The guy talked in a thousand languagues, in a thousand tongues, but could make a point.

[meadowlander]

7. Thanks for this

[drmeow]

8. I've had my settings this way for ages

Ever since it was an option.

I also only access FB via a browser on my phone - I don't use the FB app.

[orangecrush]

12. I changed my settings

This is the first I ever heard of it.

[Sam McGee]

9. There's an easier way:

Don't use Facebook.

Now, wasn't that easy?

[orangecrush]

13. That is best

but not an option for everyone.

[struggle4progress]

25. +

[Stonepounder]

10. I have a "Fake" account on Facebook.

It does not use my real name, real email, real home city, or anything else that is real. (I set up a bogus email account, bought a burner SIM card just to set up the account).

There are a handful of folks who know that "fake name" = real me. Mainly members of my immediate family.

Go ahead Cambridge Analytical, harvest all of "fake name" demographics you want. I hope my fake messes with your heads.

[orangecrush]

14. Shhhh!

They are listening!

[BumRushDaShow]

15. But if you ever try to access it from anyplace other than your burner phone

a public network, network outside of your home connection (although a "work" one might find you), or from a spoofed ip address, then you would be "found".

[retread]

16. Don't they use the data from your "fake" account to harvest data from your immediate family members?

[orangecrush]

19. I would think so

[ehrnst]

17. K&R

[we can do it]

18. Sure, thatll work 🙄

[matt819]

20. Just did this.

I had already deleted what I thought was everything from my FB account, but in taking a closer look there were some other items still there. I deleted those. The account is still there. I don't really need it, but family members sometimes post links that are interesting, and I like to comment on cat and dog photos posted by friends/family.

No more links to any apps.

[orangecrush]

21. glad it helped!

EFF is a great organization.

[matt819]

23. BTW

I hadn't realized how many apps and other online services were linked to my FB account. More than 20. Deleted all. I suspect I'll have to reset passwords on other services.

[orangecrush]

24. I know

same thing here.

[IcyPeas]

26. thank you.

like other said above, there were apps on there I have never even heard of. I had them all set at "only me", I don't know if that helps or not, but I deleted a lot of them.

[orangecrush]

28. every bit of data

denied Cambridge Analytica and their ilk helps!

[oswaldactedalone]

27. Deleted them all

To hell with Facebook. Rarely use it. Mostly despise it.

[orangecrush]

29. I enjoyed it

till I realized it helped elect Putin's sock puppet.