Facebook Just Revamped Settings: And POOF! — Gone Is This Privacy Steal-er

The Facebook Setting that was most likely key to letting the whole Cambridge Analytica uproar happen…is now gone from the platform. The one those silly Facebook monkeys had hidden in plain sight for years and more than likely sent your most personal thoughts and feelings and life happenings flying all over the Internet without your knowledge or consent— is disappearing.

Poof! Just like that. Like it was never there. But it WAS there. (See the shadow below,) And especially because Facebook is talking about how much they value your privacy (now that they got caught violating your privacy), I want to be crystal clear about why this is such a big deal.

Now:

First off, your personal information is your business. Just yours.

I wrote before about how Facebook had told me that if I wanted to make sure that I controlled how much of my information I shared, I just had to pay attention to settings. I said this one- this “Apps Others Use” was pretty confusing and how great it would be if Mark would just give us a simple Privacy On/Off button.

But now that instead, Facebook simply vanished this setting, it seems like they knew it should never have been an option in the first place.

How much you choose to share with Facebook or anyone else is completely up to you. Most of us understand today that everything in our digital world is transactional: We trade our personal information in exchange for the convenience, the efficiency or the fun that we’ve been promised. Eyes wide open. I mean, we’re all adults right here on the interwebs, right? (And for those of you who aren’t, I just have to ask, WHERE are your mom and dad?)

But this all seems to have gotten pretty sneaky when along the way, Facebook figured out how to allow third parties access to your information — hang on ’cause this is the real mind blower — it wasn’t just when YOU invited the 3rd party app in on YOUR stuff,

IT WAS WHEN ONE OF YOUR FACEBOOK FRIENDS SAID OK TO AN APP!!

That’s right. Most likely, neither you nor your friend had any idea it was even happening.

And that my friends, is the injustice of Facebook’s apparently dead “Apps Others Use” setting.

Imagine yourself just clicking away, merrily liking pictures from a friend’s baby shower, sharing your completely valid opinion on the latest political nuttiness or maybe watching that video of a lemur begging to be petted — awww, so cute. Just normal online wanderings. Meanwhile, because one of your less than cautious friends thought it was cool, some third party was finding out you’ve got your XX high school reunion coming up soon. And that third party is thinking — “I’ll bet she could use a new outfit and look, she doesn’t live close to that town anymore, you log on — watch out — incoming barrage of ads for shoes, bags (with cute lemurs on them!), hotel rooms near the reunion and flights.

Just to be perfectly crystal clear: “Apps Others Use” allowed apps approved by your friends — not by you — full access to your information-IF you failed to toggle off the details in the settings. Check out this screen shot, because you’ll never see it live again!

This was an on-purpose sleight of hand by Facebook to get more information about more users, to more third parties, faster. Which means Cha-Ching for Facebook. It’s probably what turned 250,000 profiles into 50,000,000 for Cambridge Analytica.

It really felt sneaky to me when I saw that they didn’t even put it under Privacy in the Settings section. It was off in a section called Apps, labeled “Apps Others Use.” What does that even mean anyway? If you’re operating on an average level of privacy paranoia, you probably skipped right over it. Heck, the tribe at Tech Wellness did at first. But when we wrote the Killer Guide To Facebook Privacy Settings last year, we went through every single thing on the site. And we honestly kept saying to each other, “Really?” No, “Yeah, really, this crazy setting allows basically all your Facebook moves to be sent to a random app your friend uses!” Can I get a Whoa?

The night the Cambridge Analytica story broke, I made a video you should definitely watch, showing this wacky little FB setting in action. It’s historical, archival stuff now, because you’re not going to see it on Facebook

I know you may think “Whatever, I don’t have anything to hide,” but your potential needs and thoughts about the upcoming reunion is the kind of valuable information that has turned Mark and his friends into bazillionaires.

And that is what I really want you to take away from all this: Your personal information is incredibly valuable to others. Don’t give it away for nothing. Guard it like the asset it is.

Facebook users who value their privacy are not out of the woods yet.

First, don’t forget to check out our Tech Wellness Killer Guide to Facebook Privacy Settings. It’s of course, free on our site and yes, as Facebook continues their updates, Tech Wellness will update our guide as well. But please, whenever you can, refrain from using the simple and easy “log in with” Facebook option, as it DOES allow your information to be shared with that app like so:

When you do, you’re granting the App and FB permissions to share certain information.

You can see what that information is by going to Account Settings > Apps

Step 1:

Step 2 :

Step 3:

Look at your options with each and every app. You do have some control and we just have to be mindful to exercise it when we use the still quite fun and free (uh, kinda) Facebook service with care.

Remember, as with anything we do online, our privacy is absolutely not guaranteed. So until media companies and advertisers do more in the self regulating arena, be mindful and aware. 😘

We take privacy seriously at Tech Wellness but we also appreciate fun ways to protect ourselves and our loved ones. Click here for our favorite privacy protectors for webcams and microphones. Be Well!