• Home
  • About Off The Grid
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
No Result
View All Result
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
No Result
View All Result
Off The Grid News
Home Privacy

Facebook Privacy and You: An In-Depth Look

by Tim George
in Privacy, Top Headline
Print Print
Facebook Privacy and You: An In-Depth Look
Share on FacebookShare on XShare on TruthEmail Article

facebook_like

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal turned the spotlight on Facebook apps and how they can compromise your personal security. In truth, all social media channels have privacy issues, but with almost a billion users, Facebook is far and away the most obvious place to look for privacy concern issues.

The Journal examined one hundred of Facebook’s most popular apps and found some look for everything from your current city location to email address to, believe it or not, sexual preference. What many Facebook users do not realize is that these apps often make this information known to all of their Facebook friends.

The problem becomes more pronounced because third-party apps use this information outside of Facebook. One Yahoo service powered by Facebook requests access to a person’s religious and political leanings as a condition for using it. Skype seeks the Facebook photos and birthdays of its users and their friends.

Yahoo and Skype defend this practice by pointing out the information is used customize their services for users and that they are committed to protecting privacy. “Data that is shared with Yahoo is managed carefully,” a Yahoo spokeswoman said.

A prime example of this seeming innocuous information sharing can be seen in Yahoo News. A friend recently messaged me, saying she was going to have to get rid of Facebook even though she uses it extensively for her home-based business. The problem? Every Yahoo news article she read was being posted to her Facebook Timeline, even when Facebook wasn’t open. I quickly explained to her how to disable this sharing, to her great relief.

Privacy advocates point to this kind of incident as one of the inherent problems with Facebook apps. They default to sharing information and turning that default off can be confusing, if not impossible, for the average user.

As we all should know, nothing is truly free. Facebook is a free service and boldly proclaims it always will be. It’s true there is no subscription fee, but users routinely pay in another way. They offer up valuable details of their personal lives, friends, and religious and political activities that Facebook offers up as a bonanza of information to advertisers eager to pay for access to that information.

Facebook does require third-party apps to gain permission before accessing a user’s personal details. But, the friends of that user are not notified when information about them is used by that app.  Worse than that, the Wall Street Journal found solid evidence that Facebook often does not enforce its own data privacy rules. Some examples of such rule breakers included:

  • “MyPad for iPad,” has a two-paragraph privacy policy that says it is “adding privacy settings shortly.” Privacy policies that describe how they collect, use, and share data are required by Facebook. Facebook’s privacy requirement is being ignored without action by Facebook.
  • Dozens of apps allow advertisers that haven’t been approved by Facebook within their apps, which enable advertisers, including Google, to track users of the apps, according to data collected by PrivacyChoice, which offers privacy services.
  • Quiz games “Between You and Me” and “Truths About You” seek dozens of personal details—including the sexual preferences of users and their friends—that don’t appear to be used by the app in the questions it poses to users about their friends. Facebook requires apps to collect only the information they need to operate.

A Facebook spokesman responded to the Journal’s exposed by saying: “We’re focused on helping people make informed decisions about the apps they choose to use. App developers agree to our policies when they register. If we find an app has violated our policies—through our automated systems, internal policy teams, or user reports—we take action.”

Many users aren’t satisfied with such remarks. “Consumers are being pinned like insects to a pinboard, the way we’re being studied,” said Jill Levenson, a creative project manager at Boys & Girls Clubs of America in Atlanta. Levenson said she had deleted nearly one hundred apps on Facebook and Twitter because she was uncomfortable with the way details about her life might be used.

Like so much in the world today, the face of social media changes so quickly users can’t keep up. Just five years ago MySpace had twice the number of users as Facebook. In that year (2007), Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg welcomed what were then called widget-makers by ensuring their software could operate smoothly within Facebook. It also offered these makers the chance to sell ads within Facebook.

Third parties were elated and bought in. Widgets were renamed “apps,” and within just two months, there were over 2,000 apps available to Facebook users. One year later, Apple started its own app store for use with the iPhone and iPod Touch, and now iPad.

Facebook profiles now default to let apps obtain all data from a user’s friends except sexual preference, religion, and political views.  As a result, even if a user has set his or her birthday, location, and “online status” messages to be private to friends, their friends can approve an app that will also obtain that information.

In 2010, Facebook rolled out its new disclosure notices in apps. Users who attempted to acquire an app were met with a pop-up screen listing the types of information the app was seeking. Amy Vernon, a digital consultant in Elizabeth, N.J., said that she used to use more apps on Facebook, but the permissions screens have made her more cautious. “Very often I get an invitation from a friend for a game and I’ll click it and see the permissions, and decide, I’m not really that curious about this app,” she said. “I almost always hit decline.”

While this addition from Facebook is welcomed, it is obvious privacy is still an issue. Perhaps most troubling is how little attention users pay to what information they are offering up. As in everything, personal responsibility is the best defense of all.

©2012 Off the Grid News

ShareTweetShareSend

Related Posts

The End of Privacy: Your Devices Are Spying on You… By Design!

The End of Privacy: Your Devices Are Spying on You… By Design!

by Bill Heid

The Silicon Surveillance Trap and Roots of the Digital Control Grid What we’re living through is not a spontaneous leap...

Neuralink’s Dangerous New Trademark Filings

Neuralink’s Dangerous New Trademark Filings

by Bill Heid

The Dark Side of Neural Implants… Power… Privacy… and Control? From an observer’s standpoint, Neuralink’s newly filed trademarks signal an...

When Powerful Machines Are Watching: Privacy Threats and Your Best Defenses in an Automated World

When Powerful Machines Are Watching: Privacy Threats and Your Best Defenses in an Automated World

by Bill Heid

Between Innovation and Intrusion: Safeguarding Privacy in the Age of AI Artificial intelligence is evolving at a breathtaking pace, revolutionizing...

Next Post
Window Film: Could This Home-Defense Method Help You?

Window Film: Could This Home-Defense Method Help You?

Please login to join discussion

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

6 Delicious Gluten-Free Fall Recipes Your Family Will Love

6 Delicious Gluten-Free Fall Recipes Your Family Will Love

black boxes in cars

Black Boxes In All Cars: Government Mandate Raises Privacy Concerns

Plotting Your Wild Game Food Plot

Plotting Your Wild Game Food Plot

TRENDING STORIES

  • bubonic plague

    Is Another Bubonic Plague Pandemic On The Horizon?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Waco Fertilizer Plant Explosion & A Look Back On The “Waco Massacre”

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Make Yourself 3 Times More Likely To Survive A Heart Attack

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • AI Surveillance Of Shoppers: Walmart’s Newest Tool To Grab Your Data

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘Apocalyptic’ Microchip Implants Are Here – And Being Inserted Into People’s Hands

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Subscribe to our Insider Newsletter

Huge discounts on off-the-grid gear and life saving supplements.






‘Off The Grid News’ is an independent, weekly email newsletter and website that is crammed full of practical information on living and surviving off the grid. Advice you’ll never hear from the mainstream media.

  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Extreme Survival
  • Survival Gardening
  • Off-Grid Foods
  • Worldview
  • Natural Health
  • Survival Hunting
  • Privacy
  • Financial
  • Current Events
  • Self Defense
  • Home Defense
  • Pain-Free Living
  • Miscellaneous
  • Off Grid Videos

© Copyright 2025 Off The Grid News.  All Rights Reserved.

Privacy Policy   Terms & Conditions
No Result
View All Result
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
  • Videos

© Copyright 2025 Off The Grid News.  All Rights Reserved.