How Facebook Quizzes, Games Grab Your Personal Info

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (WTSP) -- Those seemingly harmless games and quizzes you find on Facebook can be a gold mine of personal information for companies. Here's how to protect yourself.

Ann Manion is in charge of all the social networking for a radio station in Wisconsin. She's also a bit of a Facebook addict. She's especially into taking quizzes.

"For the most part the quizzes I do are just pretty benign. You know, like, 'What's your princess name?'" she said.

But some made her suspicious.

"Then it said, 'What's your middle name? Add your mother's maiden name,' and I stopped right there, because that's the same kind of questions the bank asks," she said.

Mike Masino, an I.T. professor, doesn't see fun and games.

"I think really when people are in this environment they're kind of just assume it's a nice, safe environment and don't really think out the consequences of a lot of the information they put on these sites," he said.

A lot of info is buried in the user agreements for applications that most folks just breeze through and click "Allow" or "I Agree".

"When you authorize an application, it will be able to access any information associated with your account that it requires to work," Masino said.

"Meaning anything that is under [your] settings tab... all of that is available to that application."

A whole list of information -- including your profile, your work history, and photos -- is fair game for companies to use unless you make the effort and take the time to change your privacy settings.

"They can fish information out of you that can immediately be written down and then used to go after things like your bank account," Masino said.

There is a quick fix, which I explain step-by-step at the end of this article. It allows you to keep outside applications from getting your personal information. But there's a flip side.

"When you do this, you cripple a lot of the applications, because a lot of them require some of this information. And as a matter of fact, the reason that they're written is to get this kind of information," Masino said.

You can also do what Ann Manion's doing now. Don't post any personal info like birth dates and addresses on Facebook in the first place.

The quick fix to protect your private information

In the top right corner of your Facebook page, under the "Settings" tab, choose "Privacy Settings."

Then, click "Applications."

You'll see two tabs: "Overview" and "Settings."

Read the overview if you'd like, then click the grey "Settings" tab.

Under the heading "What Other Users Can See via the Facebook Platform", you'll see a list of all of your information that's available to outside applications.

Uncheck anything you want to keep hidden.

Scroll to the bottom and click "Save Changes."