The basics

All apps need your basic information, also known as your Public Profile, if you want to use them. In other words, if you’re not comfortable sharing this information with an app, you can’t use it. Your basic information refers, in this case, to any information about you that is set to Public. For everyone on Facebook, this includes:

• Your name
• Your profile picture
• Your gender
• Your age range (ex: 21+ years old)
• Networks (including professional and educational)
• Language and country
• Your user ID (This is the number associated with your Facebook account; everyone has a unique ID.)
• Any other information you have shared publicly

In addition to this, when you start using a game or app, most will request that you share your contact email address with them. The app can store that email address in order to contact you in the future. This allows you to establish a direct relationship with the app so that the developers can always get in touch with you, without Facebook acting as an intermediary.

Giving your email to an application means you can get email newsletters and other updates direct from the source without logging in to Facebook. If at any time you don’t want to share your email address with a certain application anymore, you need to unsubscribe from its email list through the app developer (in other words, through whatever company makes the app) as opposed to through Facebook.

The slightly less basic

In addition to basic information, apps might require information that is not publicly available. What information this includes depends entirely on the app and what it does. Here are some examples of information an app might want to use:

• Your list of friends
• Things you like (books, music, movies, Pages, and so on)
• Things your friends like (books, music, movies, Pages, and so on)
• Location information (Hometown, Current City)
• Your birthday
• Your photos
• Your posts
• Posts that have been shared with you

Permission to act

In addition to all the types of information apps need from you, apps also need permission to take certain actions, including things such as the following:

• Posting to your Timeline on your behalf (for example, creating a post when you win a game). You can choose who can see these posts using the regular Privacy menu, which is covered in Chapter 6.
• Sending you notifications. Notifications are like the notifications you receive from Facebook about being tagged in a photo or invited to an event. Games or apps may send you notifications when it’s your turn in a game or when you’re receiving a game challenge from another player.

Game Home pages on Facebook

You can see a sample Home page (for Candy Crush Saga) in Figure 15-3. Its Home page basically prompts you to start playing the game. Notice that the big blue bar is still at the top of the screen, which means that if you get bored playing this game, you can easily go to your Facebook Home page or Timeline.

Some games don’t have Home pages within Facebook; instead when you click on them you’re taken to a new browser window or tab to play your game on the game’s website. Depending on what game you’re playing, you can follow that game’s prompts to learn how to make matches, find the bad guy, or win the poker pot!

Sidebar links

The left-side menu on your Home page is where you go to get to different parts of Facebook: your groups, News Feed, events, and so on. Links to the games you play most often will appear in the Shortcuts section of the side menu.

You can pin the games you play most often to the top of the Shortcuts section for easy access. From the Shortcuts menu, hover your mouse over the game you want to add and click the ellipsis icon that appears next to it. You can then select “Pin to Top” from the menu that appears.

If you’ve used lots of games and apps over time, you might not see all of them listed in the side menu. If this is the case, the best way to see all your games is to click on Settings from the Account menu (down arrow) in the blue bar. Continue to the Apps section to see every game or app you’ve ever given access to.

Invitations and notifications

Just like you can invite friends to events, you can also invite friends to play games with you. After your friends are playing the same game as you or using the same application, you can send them requests for specific actions. App invites and requests appear in your friend’s notifications on the friend’s Home page.

Often, when you send a request or invitation through a game, a preview window appears, as shown in Figure 15-4. This shows you what your friend will see in his notifications and asks you to confirm that you want to send the invitation or request. Click the blue Send Request button if you’re happy with the invite.

In Figure 15-4, note the Don’t Ask Again Before Sending Requests To <friend> From This App check box below the preview. If you leave this check box selected, the app will be able to send that friend requests on your behalf as often as it wants. Uncheck this box so that you always know when an app is sending your friend a request.

Posts

As you play games, you may be prompted to post things to your Timeline. Figure 15-5 shows what one such prompt might look like. In this case, it’s a game prompting you to share that you completed another level. If you want to share these achievements with friends, that’s great. Click the Post to Facebook button and feel free to add your own comments to the text field.

If you’d rather not post to your Timeline about something like this, just click Cancel and continue with whatever it was you were doing.

The Game Store

If you find yourself really into playing games on Facebook, the Game Store can be a great place to find out about new games. To get there, click on the Games link in the left-side menu (in the Explore section of the Home page) and then click on Game Store from the left menu of the Games page. Figure 15-6 shows the Game Store.

The top portion of the Game Store showcases a rotating list of “Featured” games. You can also see “Hot Games” listed on the right side of the page. Click to look at games by category (Casual, Battle, or Casino), or scroll down to see recommended games. You can search for games in the upper-right corner of the page.

At the very top of the page, right below the blue bar, are four tabs. By default, whenever you click to go to the Game Store you arrive on the Find Games tab, where you can search for a game to play. The Activity tab displays any requests or invites you’ve been sent from friends playing a game. A red flag indicates how many unread items await. Instant Games are games that are available to play immediately in your Facebook messenger – no loading necessary. Clicking the blue Play button launches a version of the Continue to Game window that shows which information of yours the game will have access to. Click Play Now to continue or navigate away from the game if you decide against it. The last tab is Gameroom, which is software you can install on your PC desktop or laptop to play games off Facebook. This option is geared to avid gamers.

Whenever you click on a game from the Find Games tab, a Continue to Game window opens as seen in Figure 15-7. If you want to learn more about the game, click on the arrows in the upper portion of the window to page through a slide show with screen shots and information about how to play the game. You can use the buttons at the top of the window to like or share the game, or to visit the game’s Page on Facebook. If you decide you don’t want to play the game after all, click on the X in the upper right corner to close the window and return to the Game Store.

App visibility

The top portion of the App Settings window displays the current visibility of the app. In this case, visibility refers to who can see that you use the app in question. The visibility is controlled by the same privacy menu that you use to choose who can see posts you make. Click on the drop-down menu to choose whether this information is visible publicly, to just friends, or to a custom set of people.

Many apps automatically set their visibility to Only Me. So if your friend Tammy is also playing Candy Crush Saga, but she can’t locate your account in the game, try changing this setting to Public or Friends.

Info you provide to this app

The bulk of the App Settings window reviews the information that you shared with the app when you started using it. Each type of information the app requested is listed here, and a blue check mark signifies that it is currently being shared. Beneath the information type, you can see specifically what is shared. For example, you might see that you share your Likes with an app, and those likes include the TV show Parks and Recreation, Barack Obama, and 21 other Pages.

You can click to uncheck any type of information from the list except your Public Profile (which, remember, includes your name, profile picture, age bracket, gender, and other information you share publicly).

This app can

The This App Can section reviews what permissions the app has, usually whether it can post to your Timeline on your behalf, and if it can send you notifications. Use the drop-down menus to change these permissions to yes or no.

Learn more

The Learn More section provides links to the Help Center where you can learn about many of the topics covered in this chapter, including how to get in touch with the developers of the app.

If you change any of the settings in the Edit App Settings window, click the blue Save button at the bottom of the window to make sure the new settings stick.

Removing apps

The simplest way to adjust how an app interacts with your information is simply to revoke its ability to interact with your information. This option makes sense only if you are 100 percent finished with an app — that is, you don’t plan to use it again in the future.

To remove an app, go to the App Settings page (as described in the section “Managing Your Games, Websites, and Apps”) and hover your mouse cursor over the app you want to remove. Click the X that appears in the upper right corner. A window pops up explaining that doing so removes it from your Facebook account, but that the app may still have some of the data you shared with it (it just won’t get any new data going forward). You can then choose to delete all the app’s activity on Facebook by selecting the Delete All Your <app> Activities Including Posts, Photos, and Videos On Facebook check box. Clicking the Remove button finishes the process.

When you remove an app, you will no longer be able to use the app, and it won’t be able to send any information or posts to your Timeline or invitations to your friends. At the same time, because so many apps exist outside of Facebook, you have to keep in mind that it will still be able to contact you via your email address, and it may still have an account for you created via Facebook. If you want to cut off an app completely, you may need to delete your information and close your account on another website separate from Facebook.

Apps others use

When your friends use other websites and apps in conjunction with Facebook, they may find it useful to see their friends’ (in this case, your) information — for example, a game might want to know if your friend’s friends (for example, you) are online so they can challenge someone to a new round of the game. This information can be made available through your friend even if you are not a user of that game, app, or website.

To control what information apps can see about you through your friends, click Edit in the Apps Others Use section of the Apps Settings tab. In the window that opens, use check boxes to select (or deselect) what information can be made available to apps through your friends. Click the Save button when you’re finished.

Opting out

If you’ve been reading this chapter and you’re getting more and more queasy about the idea of using games and apps, you can consider opting out of using apps entirely. This isn’t a step I personally recommend because applications can be a lot of fun and very useful. But if you’re very protective of your information, you can effectively turn off apps.

From the App Settings page, click Edit in the Apps, Websites, and Plugins section of the page. The window that opens explains what Platform is and how you can use it, as well as what you will and won’t be able to do if you turn it off. If you are confident in your decision, click the blue Disable Platform button.

Clicking this button effectively removes all the apps you have used and prevents your account information from being used by any application ever again. If, at some point in the future, you find an app you do want to use and click any of the Play Now buttons, you will be prompted to turn Platform back on.

Controlling what you see from friends

News Feed can be a great way to discover what apps your friends use, but it can be overrun with app stories, blocking out the interesting content that’s not related to those games and apps. Here are a few tips to keep your News Feed (and the rest of your Facebook) from being cluttered by apps:

• Hide from News Feed. If your News Feed is inundated with posts from apps, click the gray ellipsis or down arrow at the top right of the post. A menu of options appears, including Hide All From <app>. When you click Hide, the post disappears from News Feed and is replaced by text confirming that it has been hidden.
• Block an app. If you find an app offensive or it keeps sending you invites or requests, you can block it. From the Settings page, navigate to the Blocking tab using the left menu and enter the app’s name in the text field in the Block Apps section. The app will no longer be able to contact you via Facebook or see any of your info.

• Block a friend’s invites. Sometimes just one person is the problem. The person may be sending you invites or requests from multiple apps, and it’s driving you nuts. Navigate to the Blocking section of the Settings page and enter your friend’s name into the text field in the Block App Invites section. Then, any invites or requests she sends you will automatically be ignored and won’t generate any notifications on your Home page or in your email. You’ll still be friends with her, and you’ll still see posts from her such as status updates and photos; you just won’t get the app stuff anymore.

  If you don’t want to see app stories in your News Feed, but still want to know what your friends are up to, Games Feed may be for you. Click on Games Feed from the Explore section of the left-side menu of your Home page to see a list of actions your friends have taken within apps and games.

Reporting offensive apps

If you are using an app and you think it’s offensive, using your information inappropriately, spammy, experiencing bugs, or not working properly, you can send a report to either Facebook or the app developer. Follow the steps at the beginning of this section to open that app’s App Settings window. At the very bottom of the window are links, including one to Report App.

Once you click that link, a window opens with possible reasons that you are reporting the app. Depending on what you choose, you will be prompted to send the report either to Facebook or to the app developers.