This way you share as little personal data as possible with Facebook | Tech

Despite more and more people giving up their Facebook accounts, there are still 2.91 billion monthly active users worldwide, an increase from last year. In the Netherlands, the number of daily active visitors has fallen by six percent, but the app is still used by 6.9 million people.

Do you want to continue to use Facebook but share as little information as possible with the tech giant? Then you can tinker with the settings quite a lot.

Choose which apps and sites can view your data
You start with ‘Settings & Privacy’, then go to ‘Settings’ and scroll to ‘Apps and Websites’. You click on this. All apps and websites that you see now have access to your data on Facebook, for example because you logged in with your account there.

Click “View & Edit” to see what’s being shared. A new window shows the information that each app can access; here you set whether apps can view your timeline messages, friends list or status updates, for example.

Disable third-party access
On the same page, under ‘View uninstalled apps and websites’ you will find ‘Preferences. Here you have the option to enable or disable the option to sign in to third-party apps/sites with Facebook.

Please note: you will no longer be able to log in to websites or games with Facebook, and you will no longer be able to share information between apps with friends. You will also be logged out of all apps where you are logged in with Facebook.

Disable other Facebook activities
Facebook also tracks your online browsing activity, even if you’re not on Facebook. That’s because many websites share data with Facebook, usually through ad links. The good news: you can see what this data is and clear it.

Go to ‘Settings and privacy’, then ‘Settings’ and ‘Your Facebook data’. Now click on ‘Off-Facebook Activity’. Click on ‘Recent Activity’ to see the full list of parties and websites. Now click on ‘Clear Activity History’ to clear all the information Facebook has a connection with.

You can also click “Select future activities to disconnect” to stop websites from connecting in the future.

Privacy and Facebook
Even if you do all of the above, it pays to check your privacy settings as well. The most convenient is to use this shortcut, then you will enter the privacy center. Here you can see what you share with whom, who can see what and how you can better secure your account.

The most rigorous way? Delete your entire account
If you don’t want Facebook to know anything about you anymore, it’s best to delete your account completely. Meta will always keep some of your data, but in general this is the most rigorous and effective way.

Then go to ‘Settings and privacy’. Click “Settings” and select “Your Facebook Information” on the left. Choose ‘Deactivate and remove’ and follow the steps on the screen.

You now have up to 30 days to cancel the removal if you have cold feet. After that, your profile will be gone forever.