Facebook is a social media network that has become very popular among those who want to share photos, stay in touch with family and friends and interact with other members.
The good thing about Facebook is that it's free. However, it comes with a price. Facebook users are giving the company lot of information about themselves and this data is sold by Facebook to advertisers in one form or another.
Most people got used to sign in to a website or download an app using their Facebook login. However, any time they are doing so they are giving those companies access to look into their Facebook profile. A Facebook's member profile contains a lot of personal information that could include name, address, email address and phone number as well as current location and work history. Most Facebook users don't realize that the moment they are sharing any of their personal data with their friends, applications used by those friends can see and share that data as well.
Facebook ad tech partners, Facebook-app developers and advertisers don't have direct access to take a look at your personal data. They won't see your name, your phone number, your gender and your work history. This is because Facebook makes anonymous and hashes all these data in order to protect user's privacy. When Facebook shares data with its partners, it shares it in bulk so they can't identify individuals. However, this data is ending up being used to serve you better-targeted advertising.
For those who are worried about their privacy on Facebook, the good news is that they can do something about it. Two options are available: to opt out of ad tracking all together and to limit the info you agree to share with companies.
For the first option, things are pretty straightforward and easy. At the far right of your Facebook page, you have to click on the down arrow, then go to the settings and click on the Ads button. Click on the "edit" buttons in each section of Ads and inside the edit menu, you will find how your Facebook ID is used in ads that other people see. If you want to stop sharing your data with advertisers, you can change the option to "no one" and hitting "save changes" under all the "edit" sections.
For the apps, go to the "lock" symbol on the far right of your Facebook page and once you're in the settings, go to Apps. There you will find the list of apps that are tracking you on Facebook. When you move your mouse over one of the apps, you will find two options. You can either delete the app completely or you can edit the app's permissions. It might be a bit time-consuming to do this with each app; otherwise, you are just sharing with these company apps all your personal data.
