Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Are you using the ‘Most Used Words’ Facebook app? It’s a ‘privacy nightmare’


Did you get sucked into trying the "Most Used Words" app on Facebook?
Comparitech.com says you're not alone.... 16 million people did.
However, websites and users are reporting concerns about the app.
One user in Colorado said he woke up one morning a couple days later and suddenly had several new, foreign Facebook friends he did not add.
Wired Magazine is warning that the app is a privacy nightmare.
So what can you do?
First, before you download or use any app, look at what information it wants. Does it really need your friend list? Your birthday? Your employer? Access to post on your Facebook account?
If it's too late for that and you already have the app on Facebook:
  • Go to your Facebook page on a desktop computer
  • Look in the upper right hand corner and click on the little upside down arrow. That will open a menu.
  • Go to settings and click on it
  • On the settings page, look at the menu on the left side of the screen and click on apps
  • How many apps do you see? Do you remember downloading all of these?
  • You can edit the settings or remove each app
  • This particular app is vonvon
If you're on Facebook mobile:
  • Open your Facebook app
  • Click on the "more" menu 
  • Scroll down to settings, click on it and another menu pops up, click on account settings
  • Scroll down to apps, click on it
  • At the top of the page, you should see "Logged in with Facebook," open that
  • Now you'll see what apps have access to your Facebook info
  • Click on any app you want to remove, in this case, the one that says vonvon
  • Scroll down to the bottom and click on "remove app"
The bad news? VonVon's privacy policy says VonVon can "use any non-personally-identifying information" you provide it with, even after the "termination" of membership with the company or use of its services, according to Wired.

Friday, September 26, 2014

5 Facebook Features That You May Not Know About


Make Facebook Upside Down or in Pirate Speak

Remember 10 years ago, when Pirates were all the rage for a minute? Well, at one point the Facebook engineers got swept up in this ironic buccaneer frenzy and programmed a peculiar Easter Egg that allows you to translate your Facebook interface into Pirate (Blabber t' yer mates) or Upsidedown (əlıɟoɹd ʇıp∃) speak.

Does this sound appealing to you for some reason? Go to General Account Settings > Langauge and you can change your settings to either "English (Pirate)" or "English (Upside Down)." Think that's a whimsical little feature that you will never ever get sick
of?! You're wrong. It's actually quite annoying.


There's Lots of Secret Emoji on FB

Emoji. They take away some of the horrible pain of writing in plain language. Facebook will render all the usual face emoticons into pictorial representations: :) :D ^_^ . You know the ones. But there's also a whole bunch that you may not even be using.

(y) = thumbs-up 'like' symbol
(^^^) = a great white shark
:|] = a robot
:poop: = well, you know
<(") = a penguin
:Putnam: = the head of former Facebook engineer, Chris Putnam who left the company in 2010

You can use these in wall posts, chats, and comments, but they don't always seem to render in mobile. You can find a full run-down of FB emoticons here.


Detail Your Facebook Romance

If you want to see the detailed Internet history of you and your significant other, go to www.facebook.com/us and you will see the complete Facebook history with whomever you are listed as in a relationship with ("us," get it?). If you're not listed as being in a relationship, it will just go to your regular page because Facebook thinks that you are just in love with yourself.


Don't Let Facebook Track Your Mobile Browsing

Here's one feature you unfortunately won't find anywhere in Facebook, and that's the problem. When Facebook announced it was going to give users more control over ads in order to make them more targeted, it didn't exactly publicize the fact that it would also start using your app- and Web-browsing history to show targeted ads from advertisers. 


Create an Interest List

There's a little-known Facebook function boringly called "interest lists." It's basically Facebook's version of Twitter lists (and should not to be confused with Facebook's "Friends lists"). Interest Lists are curated collection of posts from websites, companies, or individuals that you follow in one streamlined feed (e.g. "indie hip-hop" or "local restaurants"). Interest lists may be kept private just for you or a some friends, or can be made public for the world to follow.

To access interest lists, scroll down to the "Interests" link in the left column, hover over the header and click on "more." On the next page, click the "+Add Interests" button and you will have the option to search and follow other publicly available interest lists or create your own.



Facebook Emoticons