Facebook recently made a few changes to its privacy policy.
Here are 3 important points you would have probably missed out and should review immediately with the influx of the new policy and Facebook privacy settings.
- Automatically Uploading Your Contacts
You should first take a look at your contacts, which you could have been uploading to Facebook without even realizing it. Facebook could possibly be using your contact information from your mobile device, including the names, phone numbers, and even email addresses that have been stored on your smartphone. This information can be used to make friend recommendations from your Facebook account to others from your phone contact list. This could cause unwanted trouble if your contacts are professional clients, patients or other confidential sources.
You can now stop Facebook from uploading your contacts and save yourself from unnecessary issues with just a few clicks. Go to the Menu button, present on the bottom right of your smartphone’s Facebook account. Scroll down to find “Privacy Shortcuts”. Look out for “More Settings” and then “General”. Find “Upload Contacts” and disable it. And now you can manage your contacts that have been uploaded to your Facebook account.
- Forbid WhatsApp From Clubbing Your Data With Facebook
Recently, Whatsapp had announced that it would be sharing its user information with Facebook. The user information includes data like which phone device you are using, how often you use the app, your mobile carrier, etc. Facebook, in turn, will use this data to serve you with appropriate advertisements. However, the app has given the users a time period of 30 days to opt out after agreeing to the new terms of services of WhatsApp.
You can stop sharing your information by following a few steps. Open your WhatsApp account, go to “Settings”, click on “Account” and uncheck “Share my account info”. If you have not yet accepted the new Facebook Privacy Policy and Terms, then you can disable this feature when prompted.
- Avoid Sharing of Personal Information by Facebook to Other Sites
In June this year, Facebook introduced a new way to show all your personalized advertisements across the web, even to people who are not connected to the social networking site.
The Facebook Audience Network allows advertisers to display ads on many apps and other websites. They buy ads from Facebook and show you the ones that are relevant and useful to you. The Facebook ads help them in understanding which advertisements will interest you more. You can now keep a check on your Facebook ad preferences and choose whether to allow other apps and websites outside Facebook to show you these advertisements.
There is now a new Facebook privacy setting that allows selecting “Not” to see the ads that are based on your personal interests all over the web and other apps. Go to your Facebook “Account Settings”, look for “Ads on apps and websites off of the Facebook Companies”, click on “Edit” and select “No” from the dropdown menu.
You can always keep a check on your settings by clicking the padlock icon that is present on the top right corner of your Facebook account’s News Feed column.