This week, Facebook has began notifying people whether they had ever logged in to the “This Is Your Digital Life” app, the app which has been linked to the exposure of tens of millions of records for political research.
Facebook users had begun to see whether they’re among the colossal 87 million people whose information may have been unfairly compromised for use by a political research firm. For some, however, the news is good as an alert can be found to display the message “It doesn’t appear your Facebook information was shared with Cambridge Analytica.
Following the breaking news, which left Mark Zuckerberg under immense scrutiny by the US senate, the company has now also stated that it would put the information at the top of users’ news feed, enabling them with confirmation as to whether their personal information had in fact, been compromised or not.
Facebook is making the information available as its co-founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg has been testifying before the congress this week about his company’s privacy practices — and how such practices may have been used by Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm that worked for President Trump’s campaign; another factor as to why users have been outraged.
For some, though, the news about their Facebook data is rather puzzling. While the worst-case scenario may be the message displaying that one has in fact logged themselves into the app; but for others, the verdict is less clear as a different message has seemingly been appearing;
“Based on our investigation, you don’t appear to have” logged in to the app before it was removed in 2015, one notice reads, before continuing on, “However, a friend of yours did log in.
The notice adds that a “small number of people” who logged into the app also shared their own news feed, posts as well as their personal messages. This means that the affected user’s posts and messages may also have been included, along with their town of residency.
In addition to the Cambridge Analytica data results page, there are also a number of other ways to check settings and access on Facebook.
Review Apps and Sites
Here, users can see and/or edit the type of information that is shared from their account with third party sites and applications. They can also remove any apps or websites they no longer want to have access to their personal information.
Ad Preferences
In this setting type, users can adjust which types of ads they see. Furthermore, by hovering over an advertiser’s logo, users are able to remove that company.
Users can also decide which information Facebook can use to show ads that are intended to reach certain audiences, whether this is a relationship status, profession, place of education and/or an employer.
The listings of “Advertisers you’ve interacted with” names the companies, promotional campaigns and other organisations that are “running ads using a contact list they uploaded that includes contact info you shared with them or with one of their data partners.”
By simply clicking “Remove” on one of those advertisers, only their ads are hidden merely, so be sure to note that this does not remove a user from the contact list that initially generated the connection via Facebook.
Account Privacy Settings
Here, users can tailor which people can see their profile, photos and posts. Formed around the privacy settings, Facebook also allows users to dictate the content, which, is displayed on their feeds, and to also see what others can see when they look at their profile, via the “View As” refining tool.