While you can find plenty of perfectly reasonable justifications for deleting your Facebook account, it’s not without its costs. Some users rely on it for communities, business, or just to stay in touch with friends with whom they may not otherwise interact. How to use Facebook safely is one of the questions that
If you’re looking to break up with Facebook, or at least use it in a safer, more productive way, you have options. And if you just want to delete your account, well you can totally do that, too. Here’s how.
Beware the third party apps
It is definitely nice to see how would you look like when you’ll be old. And of course, I want to share the score of that Facebook IQ test I took that said I’m a genius. The problem, however, is that most
The recent issue, for instance, only happened because fewer than 200,000 people signed up for a Facebook app called thisisyourdigitallife. That app then captured information about users and their friends and funneled it back to an agency that used that data to create psycho-graphic profiles based on things like their locations and thinks they liked while using the app.
To see what apps are hooked into your Facebook account, go to settings and click on the “Apps” link in the left menu. You will get a big list. It’s probably a bigger list than you might expect, with stuff on there you don’t even remember agreeing to install. If something on there isn’t essential, you’re best to get rid of it, unless you don’t know what it is, in which case you should Google it first.
You can dive into the App Settings menu, and that will give the opportunity to tweak what information each app can access. Many of them ask for basic info, but some of them can see a lot more than you might expect, including activity from your friends, which is how the current campaign scandal took shape.
Keeping a messy house when it comes to Facebook App security also puts the rest of your connections at risk of having their information scraped into the dishonest parts of the internet.
Use the Facebook Security Checkup
Facebook has a built-in Privacy Checkup feature in which a small, cartoon dinosaur guides you through menus regarding who can see what you post. It’s a handy place to get started because it covers both first-party functions (deciding who can see your birthday and phone number) as well as what kind of access your integrated apps enjoy. It only takes a minute and it’s a handy thing to show to a parent or another person who many not be tech savvy, but wants to keep some things private on social media.
Get better at signing in
Two-factor authentication is annoying-but-essential. With it, you have to enter a code you receive via text every time you sign in from a new machine, a feature you’re already probably using for things like your bank account and your email. This helps prevent people from accessing your account, even if they have your password. You can turn this on by going to “Settings” on your Facebook account, then clicking on the “Security and Login” link. You’ll see an entry for two-factor authentication, which you should enable.
You can also set up alerts that will tell you when someone tries to log in from an unrecognized machine. It’s in the same “Security and Login” menu with the title, “Get alerts about unrecognized logins.”
It’s also not a good idea to sign in your account on someone’s else computer. Because it is important when you are finding an answer to How to use Facebook safely.
Don’t slack on smartphone security
Your phone doesn’t get malware or viruses in the same way a
Understand who can see the stuff you’re sharing
You probably know that you have some control over who sees the things you share via Facebook, but there are other things about your account that may be out there without your explicit knowledge. For instance, you can set your friends list to public, which means any random person can see the list of people with whom you’ve connected.
Another aspect of How to use Facebook safely is the facial recognition factor. Facebook also applies its facial recognition software to photos
Get better at deleting your posts
Facebook’s ability to serve up memories from your past can be great when it shows you things like baby pictures or vacation videos. However, leaving a detailed record of your history, including photos tagged with your locations and comments made from a mindset you no longer espouse can come back to haunt you. You can nix a single post by clicking on the arrow in the top right corner and selecting “Delete from Page.”
Consider deleting the Facebook App from your phone
Deleting the application is an important part to answer the question How to use Facebook safely. Facebook App is a tool that can detect all your activity online and probably with great preciseness. The problem is that it does not remain to the online world only rather it extends to the physical one too. By deleting the application from your phone will help you in keeping a check on the information that the app gets but then you’ll have to login in your account from the browser of the mobile. This process is definitely not convenient but it will make you use it lesser. Thus, a positive outcome in your habits, overall.
The answer to “How to use Facebook safely?” is not very difficult but it will require you to change your habits. But for gaining something good, you must change. Isn’t it?