Facebook said on March 20, 2018 it is 'outraged' by misuse of data by Cambridge Analytica, the British firm at the centre of a major data scandal rocking Facebook, who suspended its chief executive as lawmakers demanded answers from the social media giant over the breach. LOIC VENANCE / AFP/Getty Images
In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook data scandal, the rise of the #deleteFacebook movement has been gaining steam.
Cambridge Analytica used data from 50 million Facebook users as part of its efforts to assist the Trump campaign during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The data was collected by an independent researcher, using an approved app, that properly requested permission from users. The researcher then turned around and sold the data to Cambridge, something the terms of service did not allow.
The app the researcher built asked users to give a whole bunch of permissions in a manner that Facebook no longer allows. Still, the damage has been done and users seem to be feeling very wary about the situation, with some even pondering removing their page all together. (If you do, you can download your old photos and other data into a zip file.)
“Originally you could create an app that could collect everything,” digital marketing and technology expert Tod Maffin explained to Postmedia on Wednesday. “In the last couple of years, Facebook has really limited that.
“What they do instead is if you just want to collect names and email address (with your app), that’s fine but if (a developer) wants more — such as your interests or your friends list — they’ve got to make a business case.”
And so, here’s how to take back control of much of your Facebook data.
1. Be aware of what data apps are after
Apps which might be looking to collect hefty amounts of personal data often come in the form of fun quizzes or games.
“Apps can get access to your interests and your demographic information and your birthday and that sort of thing when you install them,” he went on.
The key is to take note of what they say they’d like to collect. If it’s anything more than your name and your email address, pause a moment and look harder.
“They pop up a little dialogue box that reads ‘this app is requesting the following information’ — there is a little link where you can change those permissions,” Maffin pointed out. Click that, he said, and remove anything you don’t want to give away.
2. Secure your old posts (and your new ones too)
The other thing to secure is your page itself. If you’ve had an account for many years, it’s likely many of your old posts are open to public scrutiny.
To close that off, go to your privacy settings page. There you’ll find an option to “Limit The Audience for Old Posts on Your Timeline.” If you click the Limit Past Posts, that will make your old posts default to friends-only.
3. Consider how much of your page you want available to the public
“Facebook actually has quite a number of tools that make it fairly easy (to secure your account),” he said. That’s a change from the early days, when Facebook had all posts available to everyone’s view.
Adding granular controls for users to restrict individual posts has greatly increased the ability of users to protect themselves from wandering eyes.
“Restricting (your settings) so posts can only go to your friends, that’s for human beings who are looking at your profile.”
That will also work to limit what advertisers or otherwise can find out about you. (You should also turn off location services and consider your ad preferences.)
4. Get control of your demographic information
The power of a person’s interests and demography still form the backbone of Facebook’s advertising business. Advertisers may be restricted from matching your interests to your name — that’s at the core of the Cambridge Analytica controversy, by buying the data set they were able to do so — but they can still buy ads which target everyone within a certain demographic or interest group. They don’t know who you are, but they know you’re out there.
And so, remove that information which tells others where you work, or where you went to school, or many of the fun other bits of demographic information that once might have seemed a fun thing to share.
The final note: “everyone has to be responsible for their own information. They cannot get that information if you don’t post it to your Facebook.”
Maffin believes Facebook still has plenty of utility and people shouldn’t delete their account on a whim.
Stil, he closes with an old caution: “if you’re not paying to use it, you are the product.”
pjohnston@postmedia.com
twitter.com/risingaction
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