How to stop Facebook taking your personal data

If, like me, you may be protective of your privacy and the personal information you provide to companies. Recent revelations of how NSA and GCHQ are misusing private user data makes it natural to worry about how safe your personal information is online. Your smartphone can sometimes feel like a tagging device!

Facebook is well known for sharing and using personal information. They are no doubt using data to improve experience, but I've often toyed with the idea of uninstalling it from my phone, but it's hard to give up on it, given how commonly it is used in our social lives. I have already uninstalled apps simply because the level of permissions they require far outweigh the service they offer. See the example below, which is just for a flashlight on a smartphone;

Bit silly huh? I am now always dubious as to why apps require such level of information for such simple functionality.

Understanding Facebook Permissions

Below is what a user would typically see when viewing the Facebook app install screen;

To summarise, Facebook has access to:

1. Your contacts, including modification and adding or changing calendar events. They know who is in your phone and can contact them
2. Your exact location. They know where you are at any time
3. Your camera, including taking pictures and videos at any time, as well as recording from the microphone. They can get at anything you’re saying or looking at
4. Your text messages, your calls, and can call phone numbers. They can see who you've contacted recently
5. Your internal storage, including permission to delete anything. They can see the files on your phone
6. Full Internet access anytime, changing your wallpaper, opening up over other apps, and downloading files. They can make little tweaks without your knowledge

You wouldn't be wrong for thinking that maybe Facebook doesn't need to collect so much personal data. Furthermore, Facebook has offered explanations for some of the permissions;

I don't buy it. Take just the first (SMS/MMS) example; does Facebook really need unrestricted access to all of your text messages for what would be a one off task for you to do, which would take a couple of seconds?!

The Solution?

Facebook tracks pretty much everything you do online, so if you still want to use Facebook on your phone, you can still use it without being spied on - Tinfoil for Facebook comes to the rescue!

Tinfoil for Facebook is for those users that require a Tinfoil Hat when logging in to Facebook. It creates a sandbox for Facebook's mobile site in order to protect your privacy and to prevents others from being able to track your browsing history. I also no longer get notifications buzzing all over the app screen of my smartphone!

Drawbacks? There are no notifications this way (although after the consistent disruptions to my day, that's a blessing!). If you miss the notifications, you can setup a feed for notifications (RSS) and you'll need an IFTTT Recipe to send these to your phone.

The user interface isn't massively different and you'll still have access to all the core features (see below!)

In Conclusion

For users concerned with privacy, looking to improve battery life and those who want Facebook to have less personal data, Tinfoil for Facebook is certainly a good bet. Whilst you may not have all the same features, the notably shorter list of permissions will more than compensate for any inconveniences and you'll save more time from less distractions! (see Tinfoil permissions below)

What do you think?

Over to you! Is privacy an issue to you? Are you happy with Facebook's permission requests?

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