Are you doing quizzes & tests on Facebook?
IMPORTANT – You NEED to understand this:
The quizzes and games that have you fill out birth date, middle name, favourite colour, first school attended, favourite pet, friends & family names and such, are actually asking you for the info that is most commonly used to reset passwords on your accounts.
Do enough quizzes & unscrupulous types can easily hack your accounts!
Also, most people don't realise that your friends’ Facebook apps can access *your* private information!
It's 'called Data Mining' – Once these apps have your information, it can be used for many unscrupulous activities.
Some of the Secret agenda of Facebook quizzes & tests is…..
REMEMBER – YOUR BIGGEST THREAT to your Social Media security IS YOURSELF! Social networks don’t take information from you; YOU GIVE IT TO THEM!!!!!
Many people do not realize just how easy it is to unwittingly hand over reams of personal information to companies and persons unknown. The safest option is to avoid them, but there are other ways to protect yourself.
* Keep your privacy settings tight, and don’t list anything that isn’t absolutely necessary in your profile.
* It is not necessary to use your ‘Real’ information – instead consider using alternate birthdates etc. & don’t add any extra information than necessary – Facebook loves to see 100% profiles completed – it gives them so much information to use as ‘ammunition’.
* Facebook users need to be aware that anything they post — essentially — becomes Facebook's property and can be exploited in a variety of ways. Anything shared to the social network can be used to find out a more accurate picture of who you are, where you are, what you do, what you like, and who you know.
In the age of Facebook, it has become far easier for campaigners or marketers to combine our online personas with our offline selves.
These ‘marketers’ seed social networks with these personality quizzes disguised as anything from:
They are BIG Black Holes for personal data and considering the huge range of apps, it’s a major cause for concern.
What they're doing is “Data Mining” your personal information and you are freely giving it to them!
Either you supply them with your info such as name, gender, year of birth, postcode & often email when you’re completing them or you’re logged into Facebook already where you’re giving them access to your Facebook information to use.
This information is things like:
Bio, Posts on my timeline, Birthday, Hometown, Family and relationships, Current city,
Interested in, Education and work, Religious and political views,
Activities, interests, photos, things I like, My website, My app activity,
when I'm online, if you’re away on holidays & where.
Odds are, if you’re taking Facebook quizzes, you’re not checking the background of the quiz company and deciding whether or not they can be trusted. Due to Freedom of Information laws differing from country to country combined with not knowing what country of origin the ‘Maker’ of the test, quiz or app is from, you have no clear idea of what will happen to your information or your friend’s details that you’re unknowingly giving out.
What you’re really doing is this: you’re ‘purchasing’ an automatically generated joke about you and your friends and ‘pay’ by allowing them access to your friend list and Facebook wall—including all your past, current and future posts.
And on top of that, you pay by handing over information about all your friends too, but without asking them for permission!
Sadly many Facebook users aren’t aware that unless you have locked down your privacy settings correctly – the apps, games and websites that your *friends* use can also access your personal details, photos, likes and updates.
How to check what information your *Friends* are sharing of yours.
By unchecking all boxes you will stop others from sharing your details.
Have a look at our blog on Your Facebook account privacy for details on how to lock down what you’re sharing. Facebook Account Privacy
The good news is, if you’ve taken Facebook quizzes, you can clean up the list of apps that have access to your data. Here’s how;
Some of them are no doubt legit, for example apps you want to be able to post to your wall. But the permissions will stay on the list after you stop using something—even if you believe it was a one-time thing.
Nametests.com belongs to that category and should be erased.
Go through the list and remove anything you don’t need. If you see something that you don’t understand, it’s safest to remove it too. Permissions can always be added back and apps that lose their permissions will notify you and ask you to grant new permissions.
It’s a good idea to do this periodically to keep your profile to yourself…or BEST Practise is to avoid Facebook quizzes altogether.
Apps Others Use – Extremely IMPORTANT to set your own preferences – Uncheck all for the strongest security.
The default settings have all except Religious and political views already checked.
Apps Websites & Plugins – Facebook Platform
If you turn Platform off you can't use the Facebook integrations on third party apps or websites. If you want to use these apps and websites with Facebook, turn Platform back on.
Facebook Platform allows the makers of apps to gain access to your information.
You will need to decide yourself whether you want it on or off.
There’s some more information about Platform here:
Business insider – turn off platform settings
Be sure to keep an eye out for our next blog in our TECH TIPS series which will be covering what's required to get a new website up and running.