Facebook: How to take control of your privacy

Amidst data privacy scandal rocking the Facebook social media platform, it becomes imperative to have certain control over how third-party apps have access to your private data.

Cambridge Analytica has been accused of harvesting data of over 87 million Facebook users through the instrument of a personality quiz app, a third-party app integrated into Facebook of course.

Mark Zuckerberg had since released notes of what the social media firm is doing to clean up the platform after the scandal, with Zuckerberg saying it may take Facebook years to fix problems related to private user data.

There are certain steps Facebook users can take to change specific settings and delete apps that used Facebook login all in the name of better privacy.

Unfortunately, the prospect of having to manually find and then change every single privacy setting for every app you have ever come across can be pretty daunting. Depending on how into Facebook you have really gotten over the years, it could take a good chunk of time.

However, Facebook has made it easier to remove third-party apps in bulk. You do not need to download another app, just go to settings.

Note that Facebook says it will now automatically remove apps you have not used in more than three months, and you can still delete them one-by-one if you want to take a closer look at what they are and what they do.

But if you want to remove them in bulk, here is how:

First, you will need to open your settings. To do that on a desktop computer, click on the upside-down triangle in the top-right corner and then guide your mouse down to hover over “Settings.” Click on it.

That will open up this page, where you will want to find the “Apps” icon.

Clicking on it will open up a new page, one with a list of your apps presented with their icons. Whereas before you had to hover over each and open them individually to change settings or delete them, now there is an empty box next to the editing pencil.

Scroll up and down your page to see all the apps that are affiliated with your Facebook account, and click on the boxes for the ones you want to delete. If you are not sure about deleting them entirely, click on the pencil to edit the settings. Otherwise, go with the box.

Once you have all the apps you want to remove checked, scroll back to the top of the screen and find the blue “Remove” button. Clicking on it will lead to this:

You’ll notice another box to be checked, one that asks if you’d like to, along with the app itself, also delete any posts, photos or videos the apps may have published on Facebook. If you want those gone too, check the box.

You have one final step to take before the apps will be deleted. Just click on the blue “Remove” button and voila, you did it!

You can do this on a mobile device, too

That’s right, this feature is available via the Facebook app. To use it, you still need to open up your account settings:

• Click on the three horizontal lines in the lower right corner.
• Slide down until you see “Settings,” tap on that.
• Find “Account Settings” and tap on it.
• Slide down until you see “Apps” and tap on it.
• Tap on the box at the top of the screen titled “Logged in with Facebook.”
• Scroll through the list and tap on the empty circle for every app you want deleted.
• Once all are clicked, locate the blue “Remove” button at the top of the screen. Press it.
• Tap on the empty box within the grayed out box (if you want all posts, photos and video apps created gone, too).
• When ready to finally delete, tap on the blue “Remove” box.

While this is not exactly a revolutionary change in Facebook’s privacy system, it is an easier and quicker way to take matters into your own hands. The less time it takes to fix things we didn’t necessarily know was even a problem, the more likely we are to do it.

As for the question of which apps to remove and which to keep, that one can only be answered by you.

Leave any further questions in the comment below and I will promptly respond.