Author Names:
Christopher R. Martin and Bettina Fabos
Activity Objective:
Students will examine and analyze the data sharing and privacy settings of Facebook.
Let’s get started! Click the forward and backward arrows to navigate through the slides. You may also click the above outline button to skip to certain slides.
Facebook has been criticized for its careless mishandling of Facebook users’ personal data. The biggest revelation in the Cambridge Analytica scandal was the way a third-party application—a popular quiz called “thisisyourdigitallife”—was able to harvest data on the people who downloaded the app through Facebook. So, if 270,000 people downloaded “thisisyourdigitallife” through Facebook, then the app developer had access to friend networks that total nearly 90 million people.
What kind of third-party applications are collecting data on you? How can you stop them from accessing your account? Let’s find out.
Many iOS and Android apps and games aren’t native to Facebook. They range from the social media manager “Hootsuite” and photo apps to enhance photos to games like the “TakeThisLollipop” live interactive experience. These third-party applications all let you log in via Facebook, and once you download them, they appear in your application window.
Where are these apps located in Facebook, and have you inadvertently added them to your account? Answer the questions on the following slides to find out.
In Facebook, go to the top menu bar and find the drop-down triangle, and select “Settings.” If you don’t have a Facebook account, ask a friend, family member, or classmate if you can take a look at their settings.
On the left menu, select “Apps and Websites.”
You can see how many third-party apps you have downloaded—maybe some that you didn’t even know about! And you can also see the sharing settings: “Public,” “Friends,” “Friends except acquaintances,” “Only me,” and “Custom.”
Click on the pencil icon to “Edit Settings,” and you can find out exactly what information the app is collecting on you:
Use the space below to answer the following question.