Nearly everyone has now heard about Facebook user data of 50 million accounts being acquired by Cambridge Analytica, and many users are rightly concerned about what others can see on their profiles. It has also now been revealed that Facebook has saved contact, call, and text data from Android phones if the user has downloaded and used the Facebook app.
So what can you do? The first step may be to stop utilizing those fun personality quizzes or clicking on third-party app links. Part of the reason user data was acquired is that the user accepted the terms of service, which may have included sharing your name, description, friends list, and more. When a user clicks on a third-party app and tries to use it with their Facebook account, there is a pop-up asking you to accept or deny certain settings. If you clicked Allow All, that app developer is then allowed to access any of those things you just agreed to. If you are at all concerned about what outside apps can see about you and you aren't certain of what they may do with your data, you may want to avoid third-party apps for a while.
The second step: check your privacy settings.
There are multiple ways to do this, and I'll cover only a few in this blog. You will need to check both your mobile settings as well as your desktop settings. Let's look at the mobile settings first.
Mobile Settings
1. Open the app on your phone.
2. Click on the three horizontal lines in the top right to open your menu.
3. Scroll down to Security and Privacy.
4. Click on App Settings.
Once you've opened the App Settings, look through the settings to see what you would like to change. Don't like videos being on autoplay with sound in the app? You can change that here.
Regarding the story that Facebook accesses your contact list, there is a setting here that you can change:
5. Scroll down to find Continuous Contacts Upload.
6. Tap on the slider to turn this setting on or off. Turning this off prevents the app from syncing your Facebook friends with your phone's contact list.
Ready to check Facebook settings from your browser? Click here for Desktop Settings.