You can’t rely on Facebook privacy policies to be as upfront as you want them to be. If you don’t want companies to make money off of your data, it’s up to you to make sure that it’s safe and secure. With the issue of Facebook sharing data with third parties, you can never be too careful.
The alarming thing about the Facebook privacy breach is that the company wasn’t hacked to obtain the data. Facebook willingly shared it with an individual who posed as a researcher. Then the data was sold to Cambridge Analytica, an analytics firm based in London, UK. This is probably a piece of old news to you, but the atrocity of Facebook sharing data with third parties doesn’t end here.
Updated on 23 December 2024
Facebook sharing data with China
As you probably know, some of our commonly-used websites and apps such as YouTube, Google, Twitter, Instagram, and even Facebook itself. However, that’s not a hindrance to Facebook sharing data with China and Chinese companies. At least four Chinese companies have data sharing partnerships with them, including Huawei, the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer. US intelligence officials have expressed disapproval of this partnership because it could be a gateway to foreign espionage. As if selling user data without permission isn’t enough of an issue already.
As of June 2018, Facebook Inc. said that they will be ending their partnerships with the three Chinese companies. But the issue on the Facebook privacy breach doesn’t end there, because there are still claims on Facebook sharing data with advertisers. There’s no guarantee that the social media company will stop selling user data to third parties. If you don’t want to delete your Facebook account, then it’s up to you to do the dirty work of preventing them from selling yours.
Tailor which apps can access your data
Pretty sure that you’re using third-party apps on Facebook such as quizzes, shopping apps, food delivery, or basically anything that uses your Facebook account to log in. Before using the third-party app, they will ask for your permission to access your name, email, friends list, and other information.
If you go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Apps and Websites > Logged in With Facebook, you’ll see a list of the third-party apps that currently have access to your data. You can select the apps that you want to restrict access from by clicking the Remove button.
Stop logging in to apps using Facebook
To amp up your data protection efforts, you can choose to stop logging into apps and websites using your Facebook account. To do this, go to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Apps and Websites > Apps, Websites and Games. You’ll see a prompt that states this setting is turned on. Click the Turn Off button to disable this.
Once you turn off that setting, you will be logged out of all apps and websites that are logged in using your Facebook account. You won’t be able to log in to websites and apps using your Facebook account as well. This means there will be lesser third-party apps that will have access to your data. You’ll eventually minimize the risk of Facebook sharing data with third parties.
