Facebook is stealing your personal data secretly. Here's how you can keep it secure

How does Facebook use personal data?

Facebook security

Facebook Heavily invest in its ability to collect, store, and analyze data, Facebook does not stop there. Apart from analyzing user data, Facebook also track user behaviour.

• Tracking cookies: Facebook tracks its users across the web by using tracking cookies. If a user is logged into Facebook and simultaneously browses other websites, Facebook can track the sites they are visiting.

• Facial recognition: One of Facebook’s latest investments has been in facial recognition. Facebook can track its users other profiles with image data provided through user sharing.

• Tag suggestions: Facebook suggests who to tag in user photos through image processing and facial recognition.

• Analyzing the Likes: A recent study conducted showed that it is viable to predict data accurately on a range of personal attributes that are highly sensitive just by analyzing a user’s Facebook Likes. It tracks emotions, sexuality, users behaviour, their interests, Common between them, peoples location. They also provide friend suggestions of people of same families or people of same colleges, etc.

How can i see what data Facebook has collected about me?

There are a couple of places to look. Visit “Settings” on Facebook, and under the “General” tab you will see an option to “Download a copy of your Facebook data.” Click that. This will give you all of the data Facebook has collected about you, from private messages to photos to your search history.

Under “Settings” you can also click “Ads,” which will bring you to an “Ad Preferences” page that includes the interests Facebook thinks you have (and advertisers use to target you), and other information they might use to target you (e.g. the type of phone you use). You can remove interests or information from this page that isn’t relevant or that you don’t want Facebook using to target you.

What did Facebook do of my personal information?

The information you provide to Facebook is what keeps the company running. They use this data to create detailed profiles of your interests and to place you into groups. Then, they sell access to these groups to their customers, which are companies looking to buy advertisements.

How do I stop Facebook from using my data?

There are a few ways to stop allowing Facebook to track your daily activities or data. You can turn off most of the permissions for Facebook that are not required for it to operate properly. For this, you just need to visit the settings section on your phone > Apps & notifications > Facebook > Permissions.

Though, Facebook will still be able to get some of your data as third-party apps or sites to share your data with Facebook. For eg - Whatsapp privacy policy.

The company itself says, “We use your activity to show you relevant ads and to suggest things you might be interested in.”

While Facebook has clearly stated its intention, but still you really don't know if your data is safe. Last year, Facebook admitted sharing users’ data with third-party developers.

So, let's not rely on Facebook's statements. We need to take some steps to keep our data safe & secure.

Here are few steps you need to follow for:

Android Users: how to stop facebook from tracking your daily activities:

Step 1: Open the Facebook app on your smartphone and tap on the hamburger icon, which is located on the top right corner of the screen.

Step 2: Scroll and tap on ‘Settings & Privacy.’

Step 3: Visit settings > scroll > tap on off-Facebook Activity

(Once you land on this page, it will show you which apps or sites you have visited and are sharing user data with Facebook. You can tap on each app to get additional information on what data is being shared, and what Facebook is doing with all of it. The app also lets you download all your activity details. For this, you need to tap on the three-dotted button located in the ‘Off-Facebook Activity option.’ Then, tap on ‘Download your Information’ of your off-Facebook activities)

Step 4: If you don't want to show your activities to Facebook then tap on Clear History. This will make sure that you delete all the data that Facebook has collected. Once you clear the history, you will see all the apps disappearing from the top of the screen.

Step 5: Now to disable the option, you need to tap on ‘More options’ and then ‘Manage Future Activity.’

Step 6: Tap again on Manage Future Activity and tap on Future Off-Facebook Activity.

iOS Users: The only difference is you will find the hamburger menu at the bottom of the screen once you open the Facebook app on your device.

What will happen if you disable ‘Off-Facebook’ activity’?

Once you turn off the ‘Off-Facebook activity’ option, a Facebook user won’t get personalised advertisements based on their daily online activity. If you want your ads to be personalised, you basically have to pay for it with your data. 

If you don't want to continue with Facebook, If you feel that facebook is crossing its limits by tracking your daily activities, selling your personal information to third party users. So you can delete your facebook account permanently.

Watch full video below to delete your facebook account permanently.

Thank you