Facebook is one of the strongest social networks globally. It holds a lot of information about anyone unless you are very careful about what you are sharing. This post is about how you can Manage and Block Facebook Apps, Websites, and People.
Guide to Manage and Block Facebook Apps, Websites, and People
While most of the consumers don’t give much to Privacy, but if you do, Facebook’s Privacy settings let you control the amount of information you share with anybody. All these settings can be found under Privacy Settings.
Go to Facebook > Privacy Settings > Apps and Websites.
The first thing you need to do is check how many apps are connected to your profile and what data they are accessing. Though Facebook Apps show what data they take, some permissions can be removed after you allow them, even if they are not optional at that moment.
Change Apps Permissions and Access to your Account
For example, take a look at Quora. When I first added this to my account, I allowed it to access my basic information, my friend’s information, etc. Now, if you look at the image, you will notice that some of the permission can be removed, which is required at that time.
When did you use the app last time?
The second thing for apps you need to check is the last time you had used it. Right under the permission list, you have that information. If you find that you aren’t using the app for a long time, evaluate if you will use this shortly. If not, remove it. You can add them anytime you want, and it is a straightforward process.
What data are you sharing through your Friends to the Apps?
In the example above, you saw that the app asked for permission to use my friend’s information. First of all, this is not a bad thing because depending on how the application is built, it can bring connectivity such as if my Friend has listed his number, I can see this information in my Skype account and call them.
Now let’s say I do not want my number or anything similar to be accessible to any of the apps. To do this, check the setting, which is under Info accessible through your friends.
Remember, when you remove any option from here, it only makes them unavailable to apps which your friends use and is separate from the information that your friends can directly.
The next three options are for Games and App Activity, which you can decide to share with everybody or keep to yourself. This option doesn’t make a huge difference, so I will leave it to you to decide.
Do you want to get recommendations about a website from friends?
This feature is beneficial if you want to get any feedback from some online websites. Facebook has partnered with websites like Bing, Pandora, etc., which helps you get recommendations. Though you can only turn off this completely, not partially, Facebook says, “When you first arrive at the following sites, you’ll see a notification message and an option to turn off the personalized experience.” Just remember this.
Do you want somebody to find you?
Public Search on Facebook makes you findable by some long lost friend or an Employer who want to see what you do on Facebook. So depending on how you want, turn it on or off.
Turn off the Apps and Website Access and notification feature completely.
Facebook offers to completely turn off apps, websites, and games access and notification in a single click. Under Settings and Privacy for apps and websites, there are dedicated settings for both of them.
Block Friends sending App suggestions and requests.
You use this when nothing else works out. Experience on Facebook is different for different people.
- Sometimes your friend is spamming you.
- You see hundreds of invites from the same app from your friends, and You see a friend sending you hundreds of invites from different apps every day.
- You are busy that don’t have time for Facebook Events, and some apps like to block.
Block List feature in Facebook gives you answer for all of these.
How do you block someone before he or she sends a request?
Go to Facebook Privacy settings in your account, and then select Blocking. Here you have two options—Restricted List and Block Users.
Restricted List: When you add a friend to your Restricted list, they won’t see Facebook posts that you share only to Friends.
Block List: Here, you can type in a username or email id, and then block the person. While you can block and unblock, reblocking the same person will need another 24 hours.
I hope the post was easy to follow, and you were able to Manage and Block Facebook Apps, Websites, and People.
