Note: Facebook has committed to making these settings easier to find, so there may be some variance in what we depict below.

A September 2018 security hole in Facebook allowed 50 Million accounts to be accessed by hackers.  Check to see if you were affected.

Facebook reached a new low in March 2018. A massive data compromise was exposed that allowed Cambridge Analytica to obtain extensive psychographic information about 50 million Facebook users in 2014. This data was probably used to manipulate the 2016 Presidential elections.

Let’s be honest, in exchange for using this FREE service, you upload text, pictures, videos for Facebook to learn more about you. They then use this personal information to sell ads and more.  There is no free lunch. Facebook is a money making machine, not your friend.

Short of deleting Facebook and Facebook messenger, This is how you can adjust your Facebook Privacy Settings to protect yourself.

Two Factor Authentication

In September 2018 it became know that Facebook uses your second factor authentication for advertising purposes!  Do not use your phone number or another email address, instead use the option of employing Google Authenticator.

Important: You need to make change at both Facebook.com AND inside the Facebook App

Adjust Facebook.com Website Settings

Remove any friends you do not really know.  They can send you scams or other information with out being filtered.

Login to Facebook, Open the  App Settings Page

Click Edit in the Apps, Websites and Plugins box.

Also set Old Versions of Facebook for Mobile to Only me

Click Disable Platform

This will prevent Facebook from sharing your data with other apps and websites. You also cannot use your Facebook login to login to other sites any more.

If you want to still allow using Platform but want to lock down what is shared, instead of Disable Platform, select Edit under Apps Other Use.

We recommend Unchecking EVERY box and hitting Save

Adjust Facebook Ad Settings

Click on Ads in the lower left area of the Facebook Settings Page

For Advertisers you’ve interacted with – Click the triangle in the right side, to show the settings. Click on every company to disable this.

For Your Information – Click the triangle in the right side, to show the settings. Turn off everything. Also click the Your categories tab and turn off EVERYTHING. Pretty scary?

For Your Ad Settings – Click the triangle in the right side, to show the settings. Turn off everything.

For Hide Ad topics – Click the triangle in the right side, to show the settings. Set all of them to Permanently

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Facebook Privacy Settings and Tools

Visit the Facebook Privacy Page to lock down its settings.

Adjust the settings so it looks like our screen. This was the best we could do. Make sure you have a bogus phone number in Facebook. Do not allow search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile.

Change your birthday so it is a day earlier

Click the Use Activity Log link and remove yourself from any posts you have been tagged in.

Turn off Face Recognition

Visit the Face Recognition Settings and turn it to No

Adjust Timeline and Tagging Settings

Visit the Timeline and Tagging Settings and adjust it to the following:

Remove Facebook Likes

Click Timeline on your personal Facebook Page

Click More in the middle area and select Likes

Remove the Likes for as many items as possible! Delete TV Shows, Books, Events, Questions, Reviews and Movies from the list

Facebook Mobile App Privacy Lockdown

The above settings affect the Facebook App, but there are additional settings that need to be set in the App.

Prevent Facebook from using your Location

Facebook’s App can use your location even when you are not running it.

To disable it in iOS:

•  Settings – Privacy – Location Services -Facebook –  Never or While Using App

To disable it in Android:

• Settings – Apps – Facebook – Permissions – Location – Off

Remove Uploaded Contacts from Facebook

Click here to visit the  page to remove uploaded contacts in Facebook.

Prevent Facebook from continuously uploading new contacts from your phone.

Turn off Upload contacts if you use the Facebook App, it is located at:

• 3 lines in lower right corner of Faceebok App, Settings, Account settings, General, Upload contacts
• Facebook has a page to help you prevent syncing of contacts to Messenger. Details on the issue with Facebook looking at all your calls

Adjust who can see your posts from New Feed or Profile

• Select 3 lines in lower right corner of Facebook App, Settings, Account settings, General, Privacy, Check a Few Important Settings

Select Friends or Only me

On the next screen for Posts, also select Friends or Only me

The next screen will then be Profile

Lock Down your Profile

Select the appropriate level of lockdown for each item. Only me would be most secure.

The Next screen would be Apps

Remove Unnecessary Apps

Click the X next to apps you no longer need.

Timeline and Tagging

• Select 3 lines in lower right corner of Facebook App, Settings, Account settings, Timeline and Tagging

Adjust Time line and Tagging to: Only me for all settings

Change the 2 Review settings to: On

Limit Facebook Location Data

• Select 3 lines in lower right corner of Facebook App, Settings, Account settings, Location

Do not allow Facebook to save your location, do not share location with Nearby Friends, Do not Find Wi-Fi

Adjust Public Posts

• Select 3 lines in lower right corner of Facebook App, Settings, Account settings, Public Posts

Adjust these settings to something less than Public

Interests

• Select 3 lines in lower right corner of Facebook App, Settings, Account settings, Ad Preferences

Remove all the Interests by clicking on each one and selecting Remove Interest.  Other settings should have been set at Facebook.com with the instructions above.

Facebook Messenger

Facebook keeps all your messenger messages.. FOREVER.  Scary isn’t that?

Here is how you delete Facebook messenger messages, conversations and photos.

Items We are still working on cleaning:

• Check-Ins
• Removing Apps

Do you feel more secure now?

In June 2013, Edward Snowden revealed to the world that the US Government was spying on Internet traffic and other communication networks. The Government’s PRISM program run by the highly secretive NSA conducted all this work in an effort to prevent terrorism and crime.

The NSA apparently has direct connections through major Internet service providers such AT&T, Comcast, Verizon to copy all traffic passing through and can save it to its huge multi-billion dollar data warehouse in Utah. This has been going on for years and thanks to organizations like the EFF, we have learned about these invasions of privacy. The Government has stated it is using this information mainly on foreigners, but is the FBI using this data domestically?

The UK’s GCHQ is apparently doing the same type of snooping and even sharing information with the NSA.

The Government can see all your Facebook posts, read your email, see who you have called, among other privacy invading tasks.

Other services that are being watched: AOL, Apple, Skype, Microsoft, Paltalk, Yahoo, Youtube.

Specific areas:

• Email
• Chat- Video
• voice
• Videos
• Photos
• Stored Data
• VOIP
• File transfers
• Video conferencing
• logins
• online social networking

This article covers how you can restore some of your privacy in an era of PRISM.

Internet Access

This is the most important connection to the Internet. The NSA has what is believed to be a splitter that makes a copy of all fiber optic traffic travelling from major ISPs. There are a finite number of providers in the U.S. and it is impossible to know if you are using one that has a hidden connection to the NSA.

The best way to hide your traffic is by using an encrypted VPN to connect to the Internet. A VPN lets you create a private tunnel between your computer and a VPN service provider’s server, which can be located outside the US. Some examples of VPN providers can be found on this Google search. Look for one that works with your operation system, does not do any logging, and which has connections to servers outside the US. You will pay an extra monthly fee and your speeds will be reduced.

You can read our article on VPNs for more details.

You can also surf using Tor, but the problem is that a Tor exit node could be run by the government or someone else who snoops on your information.

Encrypting is only so helpful as the NSA no doubt watches for patterns of communications between different people.  Switching your ISP every week might be necessary!

Search Engines

The major search engines are definitely a major target for the NSA. They want to know when someone looks up terrorist or bomb making material. You can have more privacy by utilizing a smaller lesser known search engine such as: Duck Duck Go  Unfortunately the results might not be as good as Google’s but you’re safer.

Instant Messaging

Forget about using popular ones like Whatsapp, Line, Viber, WeChat, they have all been monitored.

Try ones like:

• Silent Circle
• Redphone
• OSTel
• Chat Secure
• Signal (Formerly Textsecure)

Email

As we have mentioned in our secure email article, there is nothing secure about email. It is based on a protocol that sends data unencrypted. If you want more secure email, try a service like Hushmail. A conversation between Hushmail users is encrypted.

Alternately, you can use your current email provider and run software known PGP to encrypt your email. It is very cumbersome and requires the sender and recipient to use the software.

Social Networks

Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter are simply big data mining operations that take your input and eliminate your privacy. There is no way to use them with privacy. You could post encrypted messages on there!

Cell Phone

Cell phone provider data is readily shipped off to the NSA. The only way to have some privacy is to buy prepaid phones and phone cards like those from Virgin Mobile or TracPhone. You would have to not call anyone other than those using prepaid phones and pay with cash, otherwise you would be tracked. These phones still use the major wireless networks like Sprint to transmit calls, so there is a log against them.

Of course, it is easy for the NSA to look for blocks of prepaid cell phone users calling only themselves!

You could also utilize a Smartphone App such as Viber, or other little known / international server based service, to place more secure calls between users. Again, you cannot call a regular landline or cell phone or else you would be discovered.

As you can see from the above, much needs to be done to help reduce your exposure the NSA’s data capture programs. With a little bit of work and some inconvenience, users can recapture some privacy.