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Last updated on Wednesday, April 11, 2018
(UNDATED) - It’s the worst invasion of privacy in Facebook history. Now, the panic is circulating among millions of users after finding out data mining firm Cambridge Analytica scrubbed users’ info. The company is accused of using that data to influence the 2016 elections.
"We've given that right away by giving access and saying we want to sign up for Facebook," said Mark Pugh, a tech expert and owner of iServPro.
Pugh says the information that was gathered is already out there. But there are steps you can take to keep more of your data from being collected.
"Definitely go through and do a privacy checkup and remove the apps that you're not using anymore or you just don't want to have and definitely make sure they don't have public access or any kind of high level access to your account," Pugh said.
You can go to the question mark at the top of your Facebook page and perform a privacy checkup. That's where you'll find all the apps you've logged into using your Facebook page and what information they have access to. Those apps can be deleted or the settings can be changed.
Cambridge Analytica gathered information through a personality quiz app called "This Is Your Digital Life" from about 87 million users. Now, you can log onto Facebook and the help center will let you know if your data was collected by clicking here. It will tell you if you or any of your friends used the app in question.
While some people are removing apps they logged into through Facebook, some people want to ditch Facebook all together, but that can get tricky.
"So if you really want to truly remove your Facebook presence, which you can do, you can download your data from Facebook. They'll give you all your data and you can go in and delete your account but if you're using that Facebook login on any other place that allows Facebook to log in, it will re-enable the account," Pugh said.
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