News of Facebook’s lax security with users’ personal data underscores the need for Black activists to be proactive in protecting their privacy on social media.
Facebook is under a microscope for its role in allowing Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm that worked to help elect Donald Trump, to collect and use the personal data of 50 million users. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Facebook violated terms of its 2011 consent decree with the agency in allowing Cambridge Analytica to access the data without users’ knowledge, Bloomberg Newsreported.
How To Change Your Facebook Settings To Opt Out of Platform API Sharing | Electronic Frontier Foundation https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/03/how-change-your-facebook-settings-opt-out-platform-api-sharing …
How To Change Your Facebook Settings To Opt Out of Platform API Sharing
You shouldn’t have to do this. You shouldn’t have to wade through complicated privacy settings in order to ensure that the companies with which you’ve entrusted your personal information are making…
This news comes against the backdrop of civil rights groups demanding the termination of government surveillance of activists, including those involved in the Black Lives Matter movement. In addition, White supremacist groups have a long history of targeting Black people in hate crimes, which is one theory behind the Austin bombings.
While government officials consider additional privacy regulations, the responsibility of protecting personal information is squarely on Facebook users, said the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online security watchdog group. This was not a data breach but “exactly how Facebook’s infrastructure was designed to work,” the organization emphasized.
If leaving Facebook altogether isn’t an option, here are steps to take control of privacy settings that can block third parties from collecting personal data:
Log into Facebook and visit the App Settings page (or go there manually via the Settings Menu > Apps ).
From there, click the “Edit” button under “Apps, Websites and Plugins.” Click “Disable Platform.”
If, like me, you’ve just woken up to the fact that @facebook are sharing my data with evil people you need to change your “app settings”. I found it didn’t work at first but after 20-30 demented clicks the platform is marked as disabled.
For some users, disabling the platform entirely is not a desirable option. Here’s a way to limit personal information that’s accessible by third party apps:
From the same page, click “Edit” under “Apps Others Use.” Then uncheck the types of information that you don’t want other apps to see.
Want to stop info of yours from going out over Facebook’s API? Then you’ll need disable “Platform”. (Go to privacy settings, and press “edit” for “apps, websites and plugins”). Go ahead and do it. I mean, who uses FB apps anyway? This ain’t 2009. pic.twitter.com/uSbFQK84x6
If for some reason you don’t want to do that, at least edit “Apps Others Use” and uncheck all the categories of data there. (Note that data Facebook considers “public”–like name, gender, and friends list–will still be shared over API if you don’t disable Platform.) pic.twitter.com/O08qEv5n2Y
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