F is for Facebook: Your Privacy Matters

Note: This post is part of an A to Z blogging challenge I’m participating in. Slow and steady wins the race, yes?

Unless you’ve been living on a sunny, tropical island with no Internet access (lucky you), you’ve undoubtedly heard the news about how private user data was stolen from millions of Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica. We have since learned that this data was used to influence and manipulate millions of users during the 2016 presidential election—with many users falling for the “fake news” the company was pushing out into our newsfeeds.

Now, most of us were already aware that Facebook was collecting some of our personal information to sell to advertisers. After all, this is explained in the user agreement that nobody reads. Moreover, the service is free, and Facebook’s revenue is valued at around $40 billion.

Yes, 40 BILLION. How y’all thinking they make that much money? For realz.

What I wasn’t aware of, however, is how MUCH of our personal data that Facebook is storing on its servers. I downloaded a copy of my file, and was utterly disgusted to learn that Facebook has kept every post I’ve written and commented on, every post I’ve liked and every message I’ve sent since I first opened my account in 2008. That’s 10+ years worth of my personal info, just chilling out on their servers. Ten. Years. (If you want to check your own history, you can click here to learn how to download your data.)

Thankfully, I don’t take many of those Facebook quizzes that are so very popular, so I was spared the Cambridge Analytical breach. Still, I’m incredibly disturbed that my personal data is one hack or unethical business decision away from being spilled all over the Internet.

Over the past few months, I’ve been feeling pretty iffy about staying on Facebook. While it can serve plenty of good—such as organizing marches for social justice and providing support to those who might otherwise feel alone–it’s become a toxic playground for trolls and keyboard cowboys who live to berate others who don’t agree with them.

Still. Still. Facebook –and all social media, for that matter–is addictive. It’s hard to break the cycle of scrolling mindlessly through post after post. Moreover, since it’s mostly a “highlight reel” of others’ lives, it has a way of making users feel “less than,” as if our own lives couldn’t possibly measure up to what we’re seeing through the screen. (And that’s not to mention the detrimental effect that social media is having on young minds, which is why child experts recommend that kids wait until they’re at least 13 to join any form of social media. The longer they wait, the better. More on this topic later.)

We know that social media isn’t going anywhere. Perhaps Facebook will eventually die away, but it will be replaced with another, equally addictive platform. Facebook is already losing droves of users over the data breach. And perhaps some good will come out of this Cambridge Analytical scandal. Perhaps it will teach social media giants that its millions of users aren’t just a pile of data to be mined; rather, that we’re human beings, with real lives and true connections.

In the meantime, if you’re like me and can’t seem to sever ties with Facebook, here are a few simple ways you can manage and protect who sees your info:

Stop taking quizzes and installing apps that connect to Facebook. S-T-O-P. Again, it was through a Facebook quiz that Cambridge Analytica stole user data. These quizzes may be fun, but they serve only one purpose: to collect your data for advertisers.
Change all of your privacy settings to make them as restrictive as possible. Consider changing this data to make sure that “only you” can see your phone number, birthday, and friend lists.
If you have friends who don’t have strict privacy settings, remember that any time they tag you in a post or a photo, others can share or see that information. If they make that post public, there’s no end to how far your photo—or worse, your kid’s photo—can be shared. If you have a friend who likes to share posts of you or your kids publicly, ask them to change their privacy settings. You can also turn off tagging so that you’re not able to be tagged at all.
Take advantage of Facebook’s privacy settings to create a list of “friends except acquaintances” so that you decrease the number of people who see your posts. After all, do you need all 400 of your “friends” to see that photo of your kid in the school play? Keep those who are most important you on your “friends” list—and move the rest over to the “acquaintances” list.

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Ron says:

July 23, 2018 at 6:29 pm

Thank you Jen for sharing this very interesting, yet concerning post. While I wasn’t one of the many people that fell for the “Fake News” that popped up in my newsfeed around the time of the 2016 presidential election, I did find it alarming that so many people did fall for it. When you really think about it, that was probably how Trump got elected. But, I digress. The facebook scandal did shed light on how important it is for us to monitor what we do on social media. Not only for our well-being but for our children’s well-being also. I’m not a parent, but I do have a nephew, and I constantly insist that my brother keeps an eye on what my nephew does on social media, because quite frankly, you can never be too safe when it comes to the world wide web.