What data is collected by apps linked to our Facebook account? How can we protect our privacy? Here’s what you need to know
Every time we link an app or game to our Facebook profile, to log in automatically without entering our email address and password, we’re giving the developer of that app the chance to mind our own business.
All apps linked to Facebook, in fact, can access a fair amount of data related to our Facebook activity. Data that, to tell the truth, would not be needed at all for the app to work, but that the developer asks us to give him for a very simple reason: he monetizes them by selling them anonymously. As usual, if the product or service is free then the product is you. However, there is a way to know how much and what data an app can read and, consequently, understand if it reads too much of it. And, if it does, then it’s a good idea to disconnect it from Facebook to protect our privacy. The most convenient way to control what personal data we share with each app is to access our Facebook profile via a web browser.
How to control the data shared with apps on Facebook
From our Facebook profile we can control what data each app accesses by clicking on the little triangle icon in the top right corner and then clicking on Settings and Privacy > Settings. Here we will have to select Apps and Websites from the menu on the left. We’ll see the list of apps that have access to our profile and all the data they can read. Let’s check them one by one looking for something strange: does a video game want to access our photos and videos? Not the case. Does a photo editing app want to know where we geolocate on Facebook? And why should it know.
Active, Expired and Removed Apps
All apps that have access to our Facebook profile are classified and grouped into three major groups by the social: active, expired and removed. Active apps are those that can request the information we’ve chosen to share. Expired apps are apps that we haven’t used in at least 90 days and that Facebook essentially pauses: they can access the information we’ve previously shared, but can no longer access the most recent information. Finally, removed apps are the history of all the apps we’ve used in the past and then disconnected from Facebook. They can access the information we’ve posted as long as we haven’t removed it.