How to Update Your Facebook Privacy Settings

by Mila Williams I'm a web Developer

The amount of data, we the social media users compromise while signing up for these applications is startling. TikTok might be in the scandalous limelight these days, but other social media apps are no less. Facebook also has access to a lot of our sensitive information stored on our smart devices. Also, know that it is not only the social networking that can access your data but anyone savvy enough can. So, what to do? Should you simply stop using social networking? Or, is there a way out? Fortunately, yes. You can always tweak your Facebook privacy settings or stop using it, and here is how.

Deactivate Your Facebook Account

Deactivating your account removes your profile from Facebook but all of your information remains stored on Facebook’s servers. If at some point, you want to be back on Facebook, you can reactivate your account with just a few clicks like nothing ever happened. Although deactivating your profile does make you invisible on Facebook, however, your information still exists, which doesn’t prove to be as secure as deleting your account.

If you still wish to deactivate your account, navigate to Settings > Your Facebook information > Deactivation and deletion. Tap on “Deactivate account.” Facebook will then prompt you to enter your password. Type in your password and hit the “Deactivate” button. By doing so, your profile will be removed immediately from Facebook.

Whenever you wish to reactivate your account, all you need to do is log in again. Once your profile is retrieved, you will find all your photos, status updates, and apps back online. Just how you left before.

Delete Your Facebook Account

Deleting your Facebook profile is easier than creating one. Just ensure that you have backed up your data beforehand. In case you don’t know, Facebook allows you to download a .zip file with all your photos and personal details so that you will still have access to your Facebook memories. To download your Facebook data, navigate to the Settings menu in the app. Open Your Facebook information, and click on “Download your information,” and then hit the “Create File” button to download.

Once this file has been downloaded onto your device, you are ready to delete your Facebook profile. Once and for all. To do so, open the “Your Facebook information” section and click “Deactivation and deletion.” Then select “Permanently delete account” and click the “Continue” button. Now, Facebook will prompt you to enter your password. Type in the password then hit the “Delete account” button and you’re off of Facebook forever.

Update Your Facebook Privacy Settings

In case, using Facebook is important for you or you love this social media app so much that you just can’t think of a day without scrolling through it, there is a way out. You can tighten your Facebook privacy settings. Below are some essential privacy settings you should consider changing.

Check Your off-Facebook Activity

You might not be aware but a lot of apps and websites interact with Facebook and send it the data about your activity. This could be anything, from opening an app to making a purchase, and much more.

Turn off Facebook Location History

Denying location permission can be a great step towards increasing privacy on Facebook or any other social networking application. On your desktop browser, Navigate to Facebook and open its Settings > Location, then click on the “Edit” button and select “Off.” In addition to this, you can click on “View Location History,” enter your password to delete any existing data. If you use Facebook on your Android phone, then you will have to navigate to “Privacy Shortcuts” to deny access and delete the history. Once there, tap on the “Manage your location settings” button and toggle off the access button.

Change Ad Preferences

By turning on the ad preferences, you allow Facebook to view and use your interests. The interests include the pages you have liked or interacted with, a list of advertisers who have advertised to you, and more. To change these settings on your desktop browser, open the Facebook app, and navigate to “Settings” followed by “Ads,” and then “Your Information.” A list of options will appear. If you don’t want to receive ads based on your employer, relationship status, and more, toggle off their sliders. To access these options on your Android, navigate to the Privacy shortcuts in the Facebook app, and then tap on Review your ad preferences followed by “Ad Settings.” A list of options will appear, there you can deny ad personalization based on your data.

These were some important Facebook privacy settings, changing which can keep your data safe to a large extent. We hope that this information proved to be useful to you.

Everleig is a Blog expert and has been working in the technology industry since 2003. As a technical expert, Everleig has written technical blogs, manuals, white papers, and reviews for many websites such as 4yellowpaes.com

Source: How to Update Your Facebook Privacy Settings