Apps gathering personal information from your Facebook page
(WISH) – Cyber security experts are sharing tips on how you can protect your personal information as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg addresses a data scandal.
On Wednesday, Zuckerburg said Facebook will take a series of steps to fix what he called a “breach of trust” between the site and its users.
His comments come days after it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a data firm with ties to President Trump’s campaign, reportedly accessed information from about 50-million Facebook users without their knowledge.
A class action lawsuit has been filed in federal court against Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, but in the meantime there are steps you can take to protect your information, and a lot of it comes down to apps you download on your phone and the permissions you give them when you connect them to your Facebook account.
“They are gathering information about you because they use that information to get money for ads, so it is a give-take relationship,” said Tom Gorup, director of security operations at Rook Security.
He said everything from pages you like to your friends list, and even your photos can all be monitored.
“People can learn things about you that you may not feel comfortable with them knowing,” said Gorup.
You grant permission for it to happen when you download an app and log in to it using your Facebook account.
“It is easy to click right past that and just say, ‘I want to see the app. I want to play the game, whatever that might be,” said Gorup.
If you do that, you might want to check your settings and see just how much you’re sharing.
To do that go to the settings tab at the top right corner of your Facebook page. On the left hand column you’ll see a tab for apps. When you click that all of the apps that are accessing information from your Facebook page show up. From there you can control what information you share, or just delete the app completely.
“It is really up to you on what you decide you want to give up for the luxury you are receiving, social media, Facebook, mail, Google, whatever it may be, you’re paying for it,” said Gorup.
It’s not just apps you download you need to watch out for. If you scroll down on the apps page in settings, you’ll see a box that says, “apps others use.”
That means anyone on your friends list who can see your information can bring it with them when they use their apps. To change that click the edit button and uncheck the boxes.