Personal Health Information, Privacy & Security

How to Protect Your Privacy as More Apps Harvest Your Data

A New York Times Personal Tech series article by Brian X. Chen

A quote from the original article in the New York Times:

"It’s worthwhile to periodically check your primary online accounts, like Facebook, Twitter or Google, to see which apps are hooked into them. Chances are you have used those accounts to quickly sign up for a web tool or app. The ones you never use may still be leeching off your personal data, so you should disable them.

On Facebook, go to the settings page and click on the Apps tab to see which apps are connected to the account. On your Google account page, you can find a similar apps list labeled “Connected apps & sites.” And on Twitter, go to the Apps page under “Settings and privacy.”

Ms. Sandvik recommended pruning apps that you don’t recognize or have not used in the last six months. Once you have narrowed down the list, take a deeper dive on the ones that remain and read up on how they use your personal data. If their data-sharing practices sound offensive, remove the apps."

Use the link below to access the full article on nytimes.com