How To Block Companies From Tracking You On Facebook

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Business Insider has posted a guide to blocking companies from tracking you on Facebook.

Most people forget that when they download an app or sign in to a website using their Facebook login, they are giving those companies a look into their Facebook profile. Your profile contains a lot of personal information that can often include your email address and phone number as well as your work history and current location. And most people don't realize that if you're sharing any of that data with your friends, then apps used by those friends can see that data as well!
 
Went through it and found 3 or 4 apps that I don't use...other than that, everything was already locked down.

Not sure why everyone is so paranoid about FB but not, for example, this site. You post here. You have some email address associated with it. You log in over http (as opposed to https). If you're going to wear tin foil hats, then you need to apply your paranoia to your favorite tech site.
 
People actually use a real facebook account to log into sites? Not that I really ever use my real one, but for anything I possibly need to use a FB account for, I have a fake one. I just assumed everyone did.
 
ravx25 said:
People actually use a real facebook account to log into sites? Not that I really ever use my real one, but for anything I possibly need to use a FB account for, I have a fake one. I just assumed everyone did.
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The only apps I ever link to FB are Untappd (if they want to track me, they can...God bless those beer swilling coders and Executives :D) and occasionally apps that are specific to a music festival. There's no point in connecting them to a fake FB account, because it's not required in the first place and the only reason to do it is if you want to check into an event through that app.

As for loggging into a site with your FB credentials: never. There's one non-google site I use a gmail account to log into, but it's an account created just to log into google sites (youtube) and and similar things. As a rule, I try not to be logged into google and not to allow any java script or cookes from them...but occasionally I have to :(
 
I never log in that way and always create a unique login for everything. Using another account to log in is the equivalent of clicking on a malware link to me.
 
Pure-Platinum-190 said:
Like what? Please tell us.
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My child, if I tell you the answers rather than let you turn inward to seek them out for yourself, it will result in you never ascending beyond your present state of denial. Look within yourself and you will find what it is you do not presently know.

(At this point, I'd totally stroke my giant gray beard while reclining on my chair and looking all mystical and awesome if I could actually grow one...and was old enough for the gray hair thing. :D)
 
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?
 
nilepez said:
Next you're going to suggest writing letters. It's the 21st century. That ship has sailed.
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*GASP!* Oh the ultimate horror of picking up a pen or pencil to write something by hand! Computer nerds everywhere are reeling in shock! :eek:

Really though, I use a pencil and one of those composition notebooks a lot for creative writing. Though I grew up pretty much hugging a laptop, when I started to use paper and pencil for stuff, I realized how much more expressive I could be with my thoughts without being confined by the rules inherent to using a computer for the same tasks. Its great for developing ideas before any writing in a word processor begins.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
*GASP!* Oh the ultimate horror of picking up a pen or pencil to write something by hand! Computer nerds everywhere are reeling in shock! :eek:

Really though, I use a pencil and one of those composition notebooks a lot for creative writing. Though I grew up pretty much hugging a laptop, when I started to use paper and pencil for stuff, I realized how much more expressive I could be with my thoughts without being confined by the rules inherent to using a computer for the same tasks. Its great for developing ideas before any writing in a word processor begins.
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I, OTOH, find writing with a pencil/pen, physically painful. And honestly, I find it much easier to right with a computer then go back and edit. It's much harder to do a stream of conscious bit if you're writing...because I type faster and it's easier to fix mistakes.

That said, sometimes I do design on paper, because drawing diagrams was easier on a whiteboard or on paper.
 
nilepez said:
I, OTOH, find writing with a pencil/pen, physically painful. And honestly, I find it much easier to right with a computer then go back and edit. It's much harder to do a stream of conscious bit if you're writing...because I type faster and it's easier to fix mistakes.

That said, sometimes I do design on paper, because drawing diagrams was easier on a whiteboard or on paper.
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Oh yes, when I started to write a lot more with a pen or pencil it was really painful until my fingers and hand got used to it, but one of the reasons why I started doing that was because of repetitive strain injuries and pain using a keyboard and mousey a lot so I dunno if that's really an advantage.

Editing on a computer is a lot easier! :) I'm mostly gathering up ideas and putting thoughts together when I use a paper notebook so its all in outline form, mixed up with drawings and artsy stuff that helps develop a mental picture and generally just a crazy mess. That's all pre-rough draft stuff. Once I start typing things (which I absolutely still do for the same reasons you're citing), I can take better advantage of editing tools and organization offered to me by a computer. But before rough drafts for something, I think I create and correct thought processes better with paper where I can erase, scribble stuff out, and just take advantage of the freedom of having infinitely variable sizes of "fonts" and boxes and junk.

I totally advocate that a lot of different styles of writing and writing objectives require different tools. Technical writing (yuck) is much better done on a computer from start to finish. Creating manuals and developing instructions or publications...no question they should stay on a computer the whole way through their life. However building marketing ideas or storyboarding animation, I think is more well suited to live on paper first. That same thing holds true with the majority of the fictional junk that I work on where I need to combine quick pencil sketches of scenery, the occasional fantasy world map, a facial expression of a character and whatever else with a ton of different scattered thoughts that all eventually combine into a bigger work. That stuff I do eventually ends up on a computer and its typed in by yours truly, however the embryo that it grows from is smeared all over some paper that's covered in crazy amounts of graphite that I've carried all over the place for months so I can catch inspiration whenever it strikes.
 
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