Good news - Time to change your Facebook privacy and security settings in 2022
Social media companies like Facebook, Tik Tok, YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram all let users use their social media for “free”. Users have access to all the good stuff - connecting with other people, seeing videos, posting videos, having fun, entertaining themselves - at no cost.
But you know social media accounts are not really FREE, right?
These companies are for-profit companies and they are bringing in billions in revenue.
So how are companies like Facebook making money?
Facebook’s business model is to sign users like you and me up for free, then watch what we do and use the information it learns about us to sell to advertisers. Facebook collects data from users, thousands of pieces of information, based on what we scroll past and what we stop scrolling and watch or read, based on the ads we click on and the searches we do outside of Facebook. (See Facebook’s own policies on the data it collects here.) Then Facebook sells that user information to advertisers. An advertiser can send ads to a very specific targeted group of people, for instance an ad can target: parents of 13-15 year old kids with $75,000 income living in Idaho working in education.
Seriously. That’s true.
And Facebook has BILLIONS of users.
Until recently Facebook users couldn't see what Facebook was collecting about them. Now Facebook is being pressured to be more transparent and they’re giving users the ability to stop sharing some of the information that Facebook has collected in the past.
To take advantage of these new features, you’ve got to go into Facebook and change your settings. (For a related KOAT news story on Facebook privacy, go here.)
**Don’t worry - it’s not hard and will take no more than 10 minutes! (If it feels hard, grab a helpful teen and ask them to walk you through it.)
Here are the step by step instructions for improving your privacy and data security by changing your settings in Facebook.
We’re going to walk through three critical changes to make. Our hope is that once you see what’s inside these settings, you’ll look around and find even more ways to lock down your account.
On your smart phone: Open the Facebook app and sign in. Tap the 3 horizontal lines (the “hamburger menu”) at the top right of the app. Now you’re in the Menu. Scroll down to the bottom and you’ll see some dropdown menus. Tap on “Settings & Privacy”, then “Settings”. This is where all the good stuff is.
In the first section “Account”, you’ll see a big box that says “Privacy Checkup”. This is the best place to check your settings and make sure they’re locked down.
From this screen you can learn and make changes to:
“Who can see what you share”. Make sure the personal information is set to “only me” or “friends”.
“How to keep your account secure”. Turn on two-factor authentication.
“How people can find you on Facebook”. Take a look at who can send you friend requests, see your phone number, etc.
“Your data settings on Facebook”. Remove apps and companies you don’t recognize on this list and turn off your location.
“Your ad preferences on Facebook”. Deselect all the ways Facebook tells you that advertisers would like to reach you based on your profile information (relationship status, employer, job title, education). This is also where you can hide who can see if you “like” a page.
Basically, everything you need is in this section.
We’re going to show you a few more things, since you’ve gotten this far.
2. Go back to “Settings” (under Settings & Privacy)
Scroll down to “Permissions”. Select Location and you can turn off location so Facebook can’t track your precise location.
3. Back in “Permissions”. Turn off “Face Recognition”.
4. Still in “Permissions”, now check “Off-Facebook Activity”. Make sure you’re not sharing this information.
5. Now we’re going to leave the “Permissions” section and scroll down to “Your Information”. This is where you can see what you’ve posted and searched recently, as well as download a copy of your information that includes voting locations, messages, saved items, pages you’ve like, polls, gaming, payments, comments, stories, reels, volunteering, reviews, friends and followers, your topics. As you can see, this is a treasure trove of personal information!
Now that you’ve done this, make a mental note to revisit the settings every month, just to see what’s changed and what you have access to. You’ll want to continue to update your privacy and permissions settings so that your Facebook account is as private as it can be.