This post continues what I left incomplete in the last one here. If you have already allowed Farmville to post your updates in your stream, without asking you for permission, here is what you need to do next.
Put your mouse on the “Settings” button in the top blue bar, towards the right side.
You do not need to click this button/link, there will be a drop down menu like below. Click the “Application Settings” link.
You will see the most recent applications, and a drop down menu to select more views.
Select “Allowed to Post” from the list.
You will see a list of applications that are allowed to post updates to your stream, without asking for your permission. Prepare to be surprised, I keep checking this portion and still didn’t know that I had one other application that could post without prompting! Go ahead and click “Edit Settings” for the applications that should not post updates without Prompting.
You need to change the “Additional Permissions” for the application.
Revoke the “Additional Permissions” and you are good to go.
You can revoke the additional permissions from all the applications that you do not use, or you do not want to allow to post to your streams. I know of people who allowed over 300 applications to post without prompting. This meant that anything that they did on Facebook, or even their desktop in some cases, was available for the entire world to see, without their knowledge.
Protect yourself. Start now!
I am writing this post as the first in the Privacy Protection series, as promised in the last one. This post is specifically for those who are playing games on Facebook and that also with specific reference to Farmville. Farmville is an awesome game and I am really in love with my farm! I have been spending hours on it and it is addictive. I am troubled when my entire Facebook stream is filled with updates from my Farmville Friends.
When you are playing the game, there is a time when the game asks you for special permissions. We do not read the fine print and accept whatever is asked for. This is where the problem starts. With Farmville, the problem begins when one takes a Picture.
Here is a sample of what happens.
When we take a picture, the Farmville asks for special permissions. If you allow Farmville to allow publishing automatically, you will not be asked for permission in future before posting anything in your update stream. For people who spend quite a lot of time on Farmville (or even other games), this could mean filling their streams with updates of ribbons, like below. You may not want everyone to know every time you spend time helping 5 friends, or you are a level up!
What are your options in such a case?
I will tell them to you in the next post, to avoid making this one unnecessarily lengthy.
