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If you’re on Facebook you’ve seen the quizzes people take. You may even have taken some yourself. Facebook quizzes can entice you with loads of fun in store as you discover the answers to life’s fascinating questions.
How else can you find out:
- What your spirit animal is?
- Who’s your very best friend?
- What’s your power song?
- Which emoji are you?
But when you take a Facebook quiz you may be sharing more information than you gain. When you take a Facebook quiz you may be giving up access to your entire Facebook account, including your Facebook friend list.
Most Used Words Quiz
Recently a Korean company called Vonvon offered a Facebook quiz that showed the Most Used Words in your Facebook Timeline. By taking the quiz you see the words used most on your Timeline in a word cloud that you could then post on Facebook.
The quiz was taken and shared by over 17 million people on Facebook. Emma, a US university student, took the quiz right after her birthday last month and posted her Most Used Words results on her Facebook Timeline.
Last week, the website Comparitech posted an article, That “most used words” Facebook quiz is a privacy nightmare, highlighting Vonvon’s privacy policy. The article explained that by taking the Most Used Words quiz you are giving Vonvon rights to access your:
- Name, profile picture, age, sex, birthday, and other public info
- Entire friend list
- Everything you’ve ever posted on your timeline
- All of your photos and photos you’re tagged in
- Education history
- Hometown and current city
- Everything you’ve ever liked
- IP address
- Info about the device you’re using including browser and language
If you didn’t agree to disclose this information, the quiz wouldn’t work.
The article continued by explaining what Vonvon could do with all of this information it collected on you, including selling the information to third-parties and using your information, even after you have terminated your relationship with them.
Vonvon responded to Comparitech and the article was updated two days later with Vonvon’s response. Vonvon stated that it had no intention of selling information to third parties and that it had updated its privacy policy since the article was published.
Protecting Your Privacy on Facebook
Whether or not Vonvon sells Facebook information to third parties isn’t really the issue. Even if Vonvon doesn’t sell your information, some other company could. Companies can get permission to access even more information from you on Facebook, including your email address.
Do you read the developer’s privacy policy before you take a quiz? Probably not, and developers may depend on that.
Do you limit the permissions you give the developer? If so, you may be limiting the ability for apps to work properly.
Think twice before giving permission to access your Facebook account. Does the developer really need that information? Are you gaining enough to make it worth giving that permission?
You Don’t Have to Give Up on Quizzes
You can still have fun taking quizzes without giving up your privacy on Facebook. Look for quizzes that don’t ask for Facebook permissions.
For example, Buzzfeed quizzes ask you questions, letting you choose between several answers to learn important information about yourself, such as Which City Do You Belong in Based on Your Favorite Color? (I got Miami).
If the quiz does require permission to access your Facebook account, perhaps you should find a different quiz.
Cleaning Up Your Permissions
Take a few minutes now to clean up your permissions on Facebook. Go to the Facebook Apps Permissions page to see which apps have permission to access your Facebook account.
Click on the X icon to remove permissions for any app you’re not using any more.
Click on the pencil icon to edit permissions for that app. You can see what permissions the app has and change them to fit your privacy comfort level.
Your Thoughts
Do you like to take Facebook quizzes? Have you ever thought about what permissions you were granting when you took the quiz? Have you ever read a developer’s privacy policy before taking a quiz?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
* Quiz image (edited) courtesy of Stuart Miles via Freedigitalphotos.net
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Hi Carolyn,
Fascinating! Personally, I don’t do the quizzes and games on Facebook. But, I see a lot of people do.
I remember a few years ago when Eric Schmidt, then CEO at Google, said nothing online is truly private and if you want privacy then don’t get online.
Unfortunately, I think there is some truth to that. I’m not an overly private person and what I don’t want public I don’t put online, anywhere.
I think in the modern age we don’t realize how much privacy we’ve given up. Is it a serious issue? I guess that depends on your beliefs and perspectives.
Great food for thought Carolyn!!!
Have a great end to your week!
~ Don Purdum
Hi Don, Yes, online privacy is definitely a serious issue. Eric Schmidt was right, you shouldn’t post anything online that you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of a newspaper.
But you also don’t need to be giving companies access to all of the information you have on Facebook. Even if you enjoy quizzes, there are plenty of quizzes that don’t ask for permissions. Best to stick to those and not give access to your Facebook account to others.
I’m glad you think this is fascinating. I do too and wanted to let others know how to stay safer on Facebook. Whether it’s Vonvon or a different company, third party developers can get broad access to your Facebook profile so we do need to be careful.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment, Don!
I don’t do the quizzes and I followed your instructions to clean up the apps — spent 5 minutes eliminating about 20+ including “State Farm” – I’ve never had a policy with them. Ugh.
Thanks,
p.s. give my regards to your Dad
Hi Lee, I’m so glad you took the time to clean up your permissions. Well done!
It really is surprising what you find when you see which apps have access to your Facebook account.
Best to remove permissions for any thing you’re not using or don’t recognize. Even if you don’t do quizzes you may have given permission to some companies to have access to your Facebook account.
Great article.
I’ll be careful about giving out info.
Hi Jerry, Thank you. Yes, be very cautious when giving out your information online.