Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Facebook Tracking and Privacy Concerns

Facebook is tracking me and I didn't realize it.

My drive to and from the Grand Del Mar.
I was looking at my Facebook activity log and I clicked on "Include Only Me activity." That displayed my Facebook activity, which only I could see, including places I had been and how long I'd been there each day. The level of detail is surprising. Yesterday, Facebook showed my journey from home to Tech Coffee and then my drive and three hour stay at the Grand Del Mar's Club M.

Stop Following Me

Facebook provides instructions for turning it off, but, you'd need to realize it's turned on in the first place. It seems this tracking feature is turned on and off via the mobile app, but the Location History map is displayed on the website.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Author: Joe Moreno

3 comments:

Tony Giaccone said...

You should also consider which apps on face book have access to your personal data and remove the ones that are probably no longer appropriate. Games you no longer play, apps you no longer use. Why give any access to organizations or applications that don't need it.

Joe Moreno said...

Good point, Tony. I'm going to remove the apps which I never use. I hope, though, they don't access my personal data unless I open them.

Tony Giaccone said...

That's probably the case, so it's not a huge issue, but why leave that opening I just went through to remove my old apps. Luckily I had already turned off tracking so that wasn't a problem for me.