Ever wonder how Facebook remembers your photos from five years ago? How it shows the clothes you left on an e-commerce website cart? It simply tracks you on its platform and other apps too. You might not realize its capability to track your life from various apps that you are ‘logged in’ on using Facebook. You might also go to a physical store where you decide to ‘check-in’ on Facebook.
You may like the advantages of Facebook offering through its features. But in return, you have to give up a lot of your personal data which is later used to serve you ads. However, there are many ways to limit the use of personal data.
Facebook’s track record of handling data is not very promising to trust them. The company has been careless in the way information is shared with third parties. We all forgot our ‘sign-in’ on various apps and websites.
To avoid exploitation of your data it is a good idea to revoke the permissions you give to apps while logging in. This will help you to prevent the misuse of your data and learn how to safeguard it.
Revoke permission for apps you no longer use
Many apps consider Facebook accounts for the sign-up process. Sometimes we login using Facebook for some work on that app or website and later forget. Such apps and websites keep your registration though you won’t log in again. It is easy to revoke the permission granted in order to prevent your data from going in the wrong hands.
Once you revoke permission, those apps won’t be able to get information about you from Facebook. (Note – if you stop logging in to an app or website using Facebook in 90 days, the site or app won’t be able to access your data, but why take a chance?)
Ad Preferences
Go to the settings section and click on the Ads tab and then turn off permissions for Facebook is allowed to serve targeted ads. Further, you can remove data on the interests that used by the company to serve you ads. Click here
Configure Facebook Privacy settings
Go to the settings section and click on the privacy tab. Here you can limit who can and cannot see your Facebook activity. You can limit your posts, friend list, phone number, and other details viewership and confine the data only to your friends or only you.
Location settings
If you use the Facebook app on your phone, it becomes important to check your devices’ “Location Services” settings to make sure to check access to your location “While Using” or Never.
Refrain from ‘Checking in’
When we visit a cafe or any restaurant, the first thing we do is ‘check in’ on Facebook to let our friends, family, followers know where we are. However, Facebook tracks our location and uses it for serving ads. This is how Facebook is showing you local cafes on your timeline. Try to reduce the usage of the feature as letting a company have constant knowledge about our location can pose privacy and security issues.