Data Privacy Is No Longer An Option. It’s A Necessity
In case you didn’t already know, Facebook is currently battling a huge scandal. Here’s what happened.
In 2014, Aleksandr Kogan, a psychology researcher, created an app called ‘thisisyourdigitallife’. He paid users to take an academic psychology test using this app. In order to use the app, they had to signup using their Facebook accounts.
We all do this. We download a mobile app and see the button “Log in with Facebook”. Why not? It’s easy, convenient and saves us the stress of creating a new account every time. What we never think about is how it all works.
Well, the feature that allows us do that is called Facebook Login. It uses what we ‘tech’ people call an application programming interface (API). An API acts like a bridge between that app and your Facebook profile. Whenever you choose to use an API to connect to your Facebook account, you grant the API some access to pull some of your profile information. (I know. Now you are thinking- how many APIs have I given my Facebook information to?)
While you ruminate on that, let’s get back to the scandal and the gist of this article. So 270,000 people used Aleksandr Kogan’s app and conducted that research. They agreed to have their Facebook profile data collected. But unknown to them, the app went further. It collected information on their friends too.
At this point, let’s step back abit and ask, “how much information does the average Facebook user have on the platform”? I dare say quite a lot- what you like, messages with your friends, when you log in, your location etc. (more in this thread). Instead of 270,000, ‘thisisyourdigitallife’ harvested data from 87 million Facebook users. These users were then profiled and targeted with politically-motivated adverts during the US elections.
I will not add to Facebook’s (already severe) grief and castigate them for allowing this happen. Instead, I will focus on the users- you and I.
How can we avoid this? Can we configure our Facebook profiles to prevent a random API from harvesting our data? Yes we can.
You can improve your privacy using the settings in your account. But we know some people struggle with navigating these settings. This is why Co-Creation Hub developed the complete guide to privacy settings in our digital security guide SafeOnline. I have highlighted some key actions you need to take today to improve your privacy to your Facebook accounts.
Improve Your Basic Privacy Settings
With the ‘Privacy Settings and Tools’, you can control more settings for maximum security:
- ‘Who can see my stuff?’ Select ‘Friends’. Also review your Activity Log and audience for past posts, to make sure they are secure
- ‘Who can contact me?’ Choose ‘Friends’ or ‘Friends of Friends’ for people who can contact you
- ‘Who can look me up?’ Choose ‘Friends’
Control Your Timeline
A friend’s post can give away your location and personal information. You can avoid this by altering your ‘Timeline and Tagging Settings’.
- Restrict who can post on your timeline. Choose between ‘Friends’ or ‘Only me’
- Very importantly, restrict who sees photos you are tagged in
- Turn on the feature that allows you to review posts before they are published to your timeline
Visit Your Apps Settings
Examine which third-party applications have access to your Facebook profile. To view and edit which apps have access to your profile, access the ‘Apps and Websites’ settings. Remember, if many of those 87 million users reviewed this configuration, their profiles may not have been harvested by the troublesome research app.
- Click on each of the apps and see what information they are getting from your profile
- Remove some apps you don’t recognize or use anymore
- Visit the ‘Apps, Websites and Games’ setting to disable Facebook Login from your profile. This means you won’t be able to use Facebook to log unto other websites
Take control of your data. Visit www.safeonline.ng to learn more about how to protect yourself online.
