This appeared a few days ago:
How to protect your privacy
Social media users are rushing to lock down their privacy settings.
- The Australian
- 12:00AM March 22, 2018
It’s time to thoroughly check the data you entrust to Facebook and, through it, to connected apps. Whenever we open an app using our Facebook credentials, there is the likelihood we have shared our Facebook personal information with the app’s developer.
Personal data can flow the other way too, from apps we have interacted with into Facebook.
The scariest part is when you have nothing to do with the data flow — when you are the friend of someone who on Facebook loves quizzes, or those mad graphics apps that construct a photo of you at 90, or nine months old.
That app may glean your personal information simply because your friend has authorised the app to access their friends’ data. Now let’s address this state of affairs.
In the Facebook smartphone app, press the three parallel lines icon, select Settings (iOS) or Settings Privacy (Android), Account Settings;Apps. You’ll see 4 headings under “Apps and Websites”.
Logged in with Facebook lists apps you access using your Facebook credentials. Press the icon at the right, and you’ll see a list of them. When you tap on each one, you’ll see the information you have inadvertently shared with these apps, such as your public profile, friend list, relationship status, work, education history and the rest. Just scroll to the bottom, and remove the app. Do that in each case.
Now choose the second heading Platform. These are apps that, somehow, you authorised to interact with your Facebook account – and its data. Under Apps and Websites select “Turn off Platform”. When activated, Facebook can receive information about your use of third-party apps and websites.
The third heading, Apps Others Use, lists personal information belonging to you that is available to applications, games and websites used by your friends. Uncheck all the categories, unless you want your friends to share your personal data with strangers.
You can also access the settings on a computer from your browser. On your Facebook website, go to app settings and select apps in the left-hand column.
This is just the start. You should revisit permissions that you give apps on your smartphone too. That includes who has access to your location, and the history of where you’ve been.
More tips here on handling the smartphone apps here:
I hope these tips are useful to help some to escape this pernicious privacy invasive social utility.
Baring amazing news this will be the last post until after Easter - except, of course, the overseas links. Enjoy the break and observe the season as you see fit with family and friends! I sure will.
David.
It is more than just Facebook, what was a fun university social computing experiment is now revealing the unintended consequences. LinkedIn is no better, Microsoft scopes data up and connects all its apps, my personal office 365 gets muddle up with my work O365 giving me access to information to both from either, the recent 150 millions account information leaked through a fitness apps presents a real issue for the MyHR as it seeks to integrate more and more third party apps, all designed to suck up information from as many sources as possible.
ReplyDeleteI am not against all of this, I just think before the cat gets fully out of the bag people need to sit down and look at this and its consequences and define some boundaries. It has already demonstrated the ability to damage governments, directly hurt people and is spawning an ugly side in entertainment not seen since the days of the colosseum.
What's the difference, conceptually, between Facebook and myhr?
ReplyDeleteIn both cases you give your data to someone; they keep it forever; they have complete control over that data; the data can be accessed by, and down loaded to, third party apps (in the case of myhr, clinical systems) when the data can then be used without the owner's knowledge and/or consent; the data has high value to other people.
The idea that you can set privacy controls is just farcical. The biggest threat is the owner of the system, the entity who is not constrained in their access capabilities and leaves no trace or evidence that they have accessed the data.
Do you trust the Federal government more than you trust Facebook?
According to this:
‘Phenomenally low’ trust in Facebook among Aussies even before Cambridge Analytica
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/technology/low-level-of-trust-in-facebook-before-cambridge-analytica-scandal-survey-reveals/news-story/883f39687472f951cabfec71c3e64829
Australians don't trust Facebook very much. Just wait until they find out about myhealthbook.
And if the government thinks they can do opt-out on the quiet - tell them they're dreaming.
It is interesting the ADHA aims to establish a world leading cyber security centre but nothing in the same vein with privacy. I still not convinced they have established a world leading cyber security centre.
ReplyDeleteThe security and privacy weaknesses in myhr are the things it connects to and to which it legitimately facilitates data flows. The legislation explicitly states that all myhr regulations stop at the border. What happens outside myhr is not myhr's problem. In fact if data in myhe can be obtained, legally, from other sources, then even the myhr regulations might not apply.
ReplyDeleteTo quote Cory Doctorow
"The best way to secure data is never to collect it in the first place. Data that is collected is likely to leak. Data that is collected and retained is certain to leak."
http://locusmag.com/2016/09/cory-doctorowthe-privacy-wars-are-about-to-get-a-whole-lot-worse/
myhr security is what is known in the trade as security theatre and is intended to placate the masses.