Tech

Facebook now sends alerts to users about third-party logins

Users are gaining more control over their data.

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Remember all those apps you gave permission to connect to your Facebook account? Yeah, me neither. Thankfully the social media platform has launched a new feature dubbed “Login Notifications” with the intent to give “even more control of their information.”

The login feature alerts users with a notification via the Facebook app and the associated email address whenever they use Facebook’s one-click login to link third-party apps.

The company says the update will give users “full control” over their information and access to edit the settings around what they share with third parties. This includes being able to revoke permission of a third-party app’s access to your log-in and personal information, such as name or photo.

“We understand there are sensitivities to people’s information privacy and related information and are taking active steps to honor and improve this in our products. We will continue to test additional user control features in early 2020, including bringing permissions to the forefront of the user experience when logging into a 3rd party app with Facebook Login,” the company stated in a news release.

Facebook 2020 — Facebook has gained a reputation that precedes it when it comes to privacy and data. Last December, the tech giant was the face of yet another data breach after reports revealed Facebook user IDs, phone numbers, and names of 267 million users were left visible on the web. Access to this personal information is prime for phishing scams and other misinformation attacks.

As we move full-speed ahead towards another presidential election, concerns around Facebook’s practices for both personal and political usage are sure to dominate headlines — and users’ consciousness. Although, Facebook has insisted it will do better in doing right by its users’ privacy and data, that has shown itself time and time again to be a promise hard to keep.