I am encouraging everyone to never participate in a Facebook quiz or game for the security of your personal, private data and that of your friends and family. The information you unwittingly provide is then sold on to third-parties, such as advertisers and scammers. Just like money laundering, the more on-selling that occurs, the less integrity there is.
Facebook quiz sites, including the popular apps Nametests and Meaww, are not providing free entertainment out of the goodness of their hearts. These companies pump personal information from your Facebook page and source data from your friends and family.
While you might see Facebook games and quizzes as harmless fun, you are comprising your privacy, with all your profile details including your birth date, name, location and sexual orientation, provided to the app developers.
By finding out “Which friend could be the peanut butter to your jelly?” You are handing over reams of personal information and this data collection continues long after you have forgotten about the insidious quiz. Often times, you have agreed for your personal data and that of all your Facebook friends to be accessed and collected via a pop-up window disclaimer containing fine print.
Most quiz users do not read this, and just click “Allow” prior to participating in a quiz. By clicking “Allow” you will let the quiz developers access your Facebook profile information and that of all of your friends.
These apps continue to operate in the background of Facebook unless you delete them via your privacy settings.
- Go to: settings >
- privacy >
- settings >
- apps >
- settings >
- deselect anything you don’t want shared
While not all Facebook games and quizzes are scams, the potentially dangerous ones are hard to spot. Facebook games and quizzes are the ideal place for scammers to hide malware (malicious codes) that infect your computer or phone.
So, keep private data private and don’t comprise the personal security and privacy of your friends and family. No one really cares about the results for “Who is your gossip partner” anyway.
