Facebook has been and continues to be one of those social networks where we like to share a lot of information with our friends. We share photos and posts in which we display certain personal information. But not everything remains in the photos and publications that are made on the social network.
Thanks to its great popularity, Facebook not only serves as a social network but as a tool to register on other platforms In a simple way. Because it houses our personal information (such as email, date of birth, and first and last names), it makes the task of creating an account on another service much easier. The problem is that we don't usually look at what information Facebook shares with these third-party applications.
After the great episode that Facebook starred in with Cambridge Analytica, and thousands of accounts were deleted from its platform, it is important to protect the information we have on Facebook as well as know very well what information the social network shares with other sites.
They do not have to be sites or applications that we have not authorized. Generally we are the ones who We offer third parties access to our Facebook information to be able to use their service. But we don't take a good look at what information it requests. Over time, there have been hundreds of apps that we have allowed to access this information and we do not know how much they know about us because of this.
Fortunately you can prevent Facebook from sharing your information with all these applications, both those that are active and those that could arrive in the future. We show you how to achieve it easily in a few minutes.
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Protecting your information
After the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the leaked information from millions of social network accounts, on April 19, 2018, a small message appeared on his social network titled “Protecting your information”.
Isn't just “protecting” your information enough for you? We teach you how to delete your facebook account so that your data disappears from the social network.
This message does not tell you that your information is now protected and that you have more privacy when using Facebook. The social network only gives you the option to prevent Facebook from recording and sharing all the data you have provided to it with third-party sites and applications. But you will have to be the one in charge of editing or deleting access to said information. We show you how to achieve it in the steps below.
Access Apps and Websites settings
The first step is to access Facebook settings. To do this you have to go to the small arrow that points down in the upper right corner of the screen. There navigate to the penultimate option, “Settings”.
When you access the settings of your account on the social network you will be able to see, on the left of the screen, different sections in the configuration panel. On this occasion you have to scroll to the option Apps and websites. This tab shows all the applications that you have or have ever activated and that have had access to your information on the social network. If you access from a mobile phone you will have to click on the app menu > Settings and privacy > Settings and, once inside the settings, go to Security > Applications and websites.
The first tab that can be seen when accessing this section is the active applications tab. The apps and websites that appear on your screen currently have access to your account information, either because you have created an account that you are using or because you have allowed them access to your information for other purposes. To get rid of any of them that you don't remember or don't want to have access to your information, click the box to select the unwanted apps and then press the button Delete to get rid of them.
What information were you sharing?
Do you want to know what personal information those applications had access to? Before deleting them, click the link View and edit just below the name of the app. A pop-up will appear on the screen showing the information you provide to that application.
You will see the information that may be requested and how many, if not all, of the boxes are marked. Generally only the public profile is mandatory and other information can be ignored. In the event that instead of deleting the app (which also involves deleting the account associated with said app) you want to limit the information offered, all you have to do is uncheck all the boxes that are not mandatory.
Unfortunately, Facebook removed an option that allowed you to choose what information was not shared with the applications. Therefore, now we must indicate what information will not be shared app by app, editing each one at a time to achieve it.
Check expired applications
In addition to having a tab in which active applications and sites are displayed, the settings also show “expired” applications. That is, these are sites and applications that at some point were offered access to Facebook information, but no longer have access to it.
What good is this tab if they no longer have access to the data? Although apps can no longer access your information on Facebook, at some point they were able to do so. This tab allows users to know what information was shared with these applications. In the same way, if you want to reactivate an app, the same information that was received in the first place will be shared, unless it is edited.
To be able to edit the information that you will receive from now on, you can access the same option View and edit that we saw in the assets tab. We will find the same options and the only thing we have to do is uncheck the boxes to prevent them from accessing said information.
In the event that you do not plan to allow these applications to access Facebook information again, all you have to do is select the applications that you want to delete and, once all of them have been selected, press the delete button next to they.
How to prevent information from being shared with new sites and apps
After all this scandal, Facebook has learned its lesson. It is now possible to eliminate the ability of any application to access your Facebook account information with a few simple clicks. But this will not discriminate between apps but will eliminate this option for all third parties.
All you have to do is go to the social network settings and in the same Applications and Websites tab, navigate to the end of the page, in the Preferences section, to be able to find the option Apps, websites and games. There, if it is marked as “activated”, you must press the Edit button to deactivate this feature, which is responsible for sharing the social network information with all third-party applications.
When you press the “edit” button you are warned:
- You won't be able to sign in to apps or websites with Facebook.
- Apps and websites you're signed in with Facebook may delete your accounts and activity.
- You will not be able to play games on Facebook and your activity in them may be deleted.
- Facebook posts, photos, and videos that apps and websites published may be deleted.
- You won't be able to share or interact with content from other apps and websites on Facebook using social plugins, such as the "Share" and "Like" buttons.
If you agree with it, you will only have to press the button Deactivate so that no third-party application can ever have access to your information on the social network again.
I have been glued to a monitor since a PC fell into my hands in 1997. Now I like to write about everything related to them.
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