Privacy on Facebook

A few weeks ago Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, answered questions from a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees (Tuesday, April 10) and then on the next day met with the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The issues covered at the hearings were privacy on Facebook, how foreign governments and agencies were able to use Facebook to plant and spread promotional and sometimes false information intended to influence our 2016 elections without identifying themselves or their clients, and the need for greater transparency regarding how one’s Facebook data is being used by Facebook and others.

Zuckerberg testified that Facebook is addressing these issues by initiating stronger controls on app developers who want to connect with Facebook and limiting the information they can collect. In the future, they will also clearly identify sponsored political and issue based content and who pays for it.

How Can I tell if my information was shared with Cambridge Analytica?

If your data was shared with Cambridge Analytica (CA), the British Consulting firm which purchased data downloaded by a Canadian researcher (for a psychology study) to use in marketing during the 2016 election, you probably saw a notice on your News Feed about that. If you do not remember seeing that notice or want to see it again, you can find it by clicking the question mark in the upper right hand corner of your Facebook top menu bar and typing in “How can I tell if my information was shared with Cambridge Analytica?” or some version of that. Facebook will tell you what they have learned about your account and CA.

Review Your Privacy Settings

Facebook is also committed to making it easier for users to set their own privacy controls regarding both the content they share and the apps they use.

To review your privacy settings (for your posts, apps and profile), click on the question mark again and click on Privacy Check-up, which is very simple to use and explains what privacy settings you currently have. You can change them right there.

Stay Alert and Be Smart

Facebook will be rolling out other changes as they continue to grapple with keeping Facebook “social” for users and the desire for privacy and transparency on the part of the same users. We want to keep up with that.

We need to use the privacy controls that Facebook provides now and review them from time to time. More importantly, we need to be prudent about what we post and discerning, even skeptical at times, about what we read on Facebook.