No one likes remembering multiple passwords or entering the same information over and over again when signing up for a new service. Instead, most websites and apps allow you to log in with your Facebook account. Many of us worry about doing this, though, because you could be giving away a lot of personal information for a little convenience. But don’t worry – you can register and log in with Facebook on different websites while protecting your privacy, and we’ll show you how.
(See also: How to manage Facebook privacy in five easy steps)
Choose what you share
Gone are the days when apps asked you to provide all your Facebook information or refused to log in via the social network. Facebook now lets you choose what content you want to share with each service. When you log in with Facebook, there are usually two confirmation dialog boxes involved. The first time the app simply asks for access to your Facebook profile, the second time it asks for permission to post on your behalf.
In the first step, you can now choose what information the application can access. You can choose to deny apps access to certain parts of your profile, such as your friends list, etc. Note that the app will almost always seek to access basic information, such as date of birth, etc.
The second confirmation conversation is where things get tricky. You can select the privacy level of the app – Public, Friends, and Only Me, and then you can click OK or Skip. If you don’t want the app to be published at all, click Skip. Otherwise, select your desired level of privacy and click OK.
For complete privacy, it’s best to click the “Skip” button. You can also tap the people icon and select “Only me” to ensure none of your friends can see the app’s posts. This way, you can let the app publish posts and then manually change the privacy level of individual posts that you want others to see.
Log in anonymously
If you’re thinking about privacy, Facebook has a new feature you might find more useful called “Anonymous Login.” Some apps now allow you to log in anonymously to try out your information before choosing to share it. Facebook says you can choose to provide more details about yourself to the app later. Please look out for the “Log in anonymously” button in the app to protect your privacy. Watch the video below to see how this feature works.
Manage application permissions
If you’ve signed up for another service using Facebook, you should also check the permissions there to manage your privacy. After a while, it becomes hard to remember which app to post to your wall and annoy your friends. It’s actually very easy to manage app permissions, so follow these steps for a quick cleanup:
1) Click the down arrow icon in the upper right corner of the Facebook website and click Settings (or go to Settings in the Facebook app).
2) From the loaded page, click Apps on the left side of the screen.
3) Here you will see all the applications that have access to your Facebook account. You can click the cross icon to revoke an app’s access to Facebook, or click Edit to change who the app can be shared with.
4) If you think you’d be better off not letting apps access your Facebook account, you can go to Settings > Apps and click the Edit button next to this question: “Use apps, plug-ins, games, and websites on Facebook and elsewhere?” This is the first option at the top of the list of apps. Click “Close Platform” to remove all apps from your Facebook account. Please note that closing the platform will not allow you to log into any website through Facebook.
In the settings, you can also block annoying apps that your friends use to spam your wall. In order to stop seeing Candy Crush invitations, you need to do the following:
1) To block annoying apps, go to Settings > Block.
2) Scroll down to the Block Apps section (this is the last option) and enter the name of the app you want to block.
We hope this helps you better manage your Facebook account. If you use any other method to manage login through Facebook, please leave a message in the comments section below. You might like our post on cleaning your social feed, which will help you remove spam posts and elements from your social sites. For more of our tutorials, check out our “How To” section.
