Orange County Web Design Blog

Ok, so many of you may have heard that Facebook has changed it’s privacy policy and is now partnered with third party companies who they will share your personal info with. Also, they wont just be sharing your info, they’ll be sharing the info of your friends and vise versa. They have it setup, so even if you remove yourself from participation, they still get your info from your friends, unless you block all companies that Facebook ads to this new open web initiative. What I’m going to do is show you step by step, how to do this, as simply as possible.

Step 1: Go to the Accounts, Privacy Settings.

Step 2: Click Applications and Websites.

Step 3: Click the “Edit Settings” box under “Instant Personalization”

Step 4: Un-Check the box that says “Allow”

Step 5: After selecting “Confirm”, select the small text link at the bottom that says “Learn More”. Then on this page, you’ll be given a bunch of links that are meant to confuse you and make it difficult for you to know where to go and what to do next. So scroll down and select the 3rd link from the bottom “How do I opt-out of instant personalization?”

Once you’ve done this you’ll see links to the “Third Party” companies that Facebook is partnering with to share you and your friends information. Here are the three companies currently, Microsoft Docs.com, Pandora, Yelp. If you click on these links, you will be taken to their page, then all you have to do is select “Block” under the image on the upper left. BAM… you’re done..!

The real problem lies in how often and how fast Facebook will partner with new Third party companies. This means you will have to come back and repeat these steps for any new links that appear.

I hope this helps. Feel free to comment if you know a better or faster way.