Take control of your data on Facebook

Every time you post, like, comment, watch a video, upload/tag a photo, check-in, search, etc. it is logged. Facebook uses this information to provide content (Ads, Page Likes) targeted for you, after all this is how they make money. If you like to see all your activities check this out, you will be surprised how much data you have shared with Facebook:

a) Long on to Facebook via a desktop or a laptop.

b) On the blue ribbon, to the right of “Search Facebook” , click on your profile, you name with the your profile picture

c) On the next screen click on View Activity Log button:image

Now that you know how much Facebook knows about you, there are two things you can do.:

1. Go with the flow and don’t bother deleting any of the logged data as you find content targeted to you useful.

2. Follow instructions below to selectively remove data you do not want to be tracked.

Removing un-necessary activities:

1. Following activity types can be deleted:

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2. You have to delete each activity one by one(I am working on a utility to help with this), by clicking on the image icon to the right of every activity type, with the exception of Search. This is the only activity type that you can remove I one click. To the left of Activity Log, in the Filters menu, click on More:

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You will see:

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Click Search. On he displayed page:

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Click on Clear Searches, and follow prompts..

Facebook Applications

You can also check the number of Facebook Applications you have added over time. While on your profile page, in the Filters column to the left of Activity Log, find the All Apps section, and click on MORE:

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This will show all the apps you have installed:

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Some of the apps listed above are not installed on your Facebook profile, only that you have provided those apps access to your Facebook profile. You can remove your Facebook access through each of the app settings individually.

Clicking on each of the apps, will show you what each of the apps has posted to your timeline. You can delete the posts by clicking on the icon and following instructions.

This is also a great time to remove unwanted apps, after all, apps have access to your data. To remove app(s), click on the upside down triangle as shown below:

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From the displayed menu, select Settings:

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Select Apps from the menu bar on the left of the screen,

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On the displayed screen, remove applications you do not wish to use any more by hovering the mouse pointer over the app, and selecting x.