Daily Times

Facebook has decided to send notifications to all users (including roughly 87 million people) who had their data stolen by the disgraced political firm Cambridge Analytica. On Monday, users started receiving notification prompting them to review the apps and websites they use are linked to Facebook and what kind of information is shared with them. The alert also carries privacy setting button to withdraw permissions you may have previously given to an app or a website.

If you receive a privacy setting notification, don’t freak out just yet without checking it out first. And even if your profile wasn’t hacked, it’s probably a good time to review your privacy settings. But if the alert confirms your data may have been compromised, it will guide you of the steps you need to take as well.

Look at the following screen to know the difference between the two. If your data was not stolen by CA, the alert will look like the screen on the left and if your data has indeed been compromised, it will look like the one on the right.

Since 70 million out of the roughly 87 million compromised accounts are of the US users and with over 2.2 billion registered users on Facebook, the odds are in your favour and you will most likely receive the notification as the one on the left.

Facebook has also kicked out two apps that it suspected were abusing users data through their personality quizzes. They are CubeYou and Canadian analytics firm AggregateIQ prompting Canada to launch their own investigation.

If you receive a privacy setting notification, don’t freak out just yet without checking it out first. And even if your profile wasn’t hacked, it’s probably a good time to review your privacy settings

It’s good that Facebook is taking all these steps in the aftermath of the data breach scandal and trying to be transparent but should we continue taking Facebook’s word for it? It’s really a matter of individual personal choice and if you decide to continue using the platform, following keep on reading

Steps you can take to tighten up security around your personal data

1. Review privacy settings and revoke access to shady third party apps especially the ones that are invasive i.e. personality quiz apps. And never give out personal information in quiz apps

2. Use two-factor authorisation on; meaning that in order to login, you have to confirm using your mobile device that it is indeed you and not an intruder trying to gain access

3. Have a strong password that is not easy to predict or break — preferably a different password for each platform — and it should comprise on a combination of letters of both upper and lower cases, numbers and special characters. Make sure you don’t share your password with anyone, remember it instead of writing it anywhere and change it every now and then.

4. Clean up your friends list every now and then and be sure when posting who your intended audience is; friends only, family members only or public

5. Only add people as friends you can trust with your data

6. Double check what you’re saying yes to when accessing your accounts on a mobile device and before giving cross-platform authorisation. Many people unknowingly allow access to their phone/address books to third party apps without knowing what they will do with it.

The writer is the Digital Editor, Daily Times and can be reached at me@farhanjanjua.com. He tweets and instagrams @FarhanJanjua

Published in Daily Times, April 10^th 2018.