Check Your Facebook App Permissions – You’ll Be Surprised

We’ve talked before about app permissions on your Android phone or tablet, iPhone or iPad – but there’s another place you’ve probably granted a lot of app permissions that you might not think of: Facebook.

If you’re a Facebook user, you’ve likely added an app or two for playing games or entering a contest. Let’s look at how to check out what permissions you’ve authorized:

First, click the privacy settings in the upper right-hand corner of your Facebook Feed. (It looks like a little padlock) Select See more settings from the drop-down menu.

Choose Apps from the column on the left.

You’ll see a list of your Facebook apps in alphabetical order.

Hover over the app you wish to check with your mouse and then click on the Edit tool – it looks like a pen. Click on the pen.

You’ll now see a list of all the permissions you’ve given the app and how recently the app has accessed it.

Here, I can see that Amazon has accessed my e-mail address in the past 90 days. Probably to send me an offer concerning a book I’ve posted about or a product page I’ve visited.  You’ll notice they also check out my hobbies. That’s probably why I get glitter offers from Amazon.

It also requires that I allow them access the interests of my friends and their birthdays. Now it’s not just the Amazon app. Check out the permissions for your favorite game and prepare for a shock. 

I would challenge many of you who expressed concerned about the excessive amount of information that mobile apps demand to look through all of their Facebook apps they access from their PC and get familiar with the information they are sharing.  If you aren’t willing to continue to share that information, you can click Remove App at the bottom of the screen.

I’d be interested to know many of you found apps you can’t remember installing or permissions you had no idea that you’d granted. Let me know in the comments.