Did You Post that on My Wall?!

I often see posts on my wall from people that did not actually do the post. An App is doing this on their behalf. Often you give an App permission to post on your behalf or gain access to information about you and your friends without even knowing it. When you see a post from someone you know you often trust and click on it. This is exactly what the creator of the App is hoping for since it can pass on a malicious program to your computer or gain access to info in your profile or even your friend’s profiles.

Check your app settings to make sure you do not have any that can post on your behalf. You can check your setting under Account Settings – Privacy Settings – Apps and Websites. When you are on Privacy Settings look near the bottom of the page and you will see Apps and Websites.

On the next screen you can edit the setting under “Apps You Use” and make sure you are not allowing Apps to do things without your permission. I think you are going to be very surprised when you see the default permissions Apps have and what information they have access to. Don’t forget to check these settings often to make sure new Apps are kept under control and that the settings of the other Apps do not change back to their original settings.

I recommend you scan the list of Apps and delete any that you do not want. When you delete an App it will complain that if you delete the App it or you will not have access to things it needs. Ignore this and continue to delete the App. Take a minute to make sure you do not want or need the App before deleting it. I have been able to delete every App in the list and have not had any issues with anything not working properly on Facebook.

Do it now, rein in those unwieldy Apps and put them in their place. Don’t just do it for you, do it to protect you and your friends.