This is how you stop businesses accessing your data on Facebook

The level of access that third-party apps and businesses have to your Facebook data is now firmly in the spotlight.

When you use Facebook to sign into an app rather than creating an account, on websites like AirBnB or Gumtree, you give that app access to much of the same data that Facebook already has.

When you install an app you give it permission to access your public profile, which includes your name, profile pictures, username and user ID.

You also give them access to networks and any other info which you have chosen to make publicly available, alongside your friends list, gender, age range and location.

With this in mind, you may want to stop these third-party apps accessing your data.

Facebook allows you to choose the privacy settings for each app that you use, allowing you to continue to use the app if you wish, but control the amount of information available to it.

Alternatively, of course, you can remove the app completely.

How to stop third-party apps accessing your data

For desktop users

Step 1: Click on the downward pointing arrow on the navigation bar

Step 2: Click on ‘settings'

Step 3: On the settings page, at the left-hand side there will be a menu- click on ‘Apps and websites’.

Step 4: A list of apps should then appear. Underneath each it should say ‘view and edit’. If you want to remove the app, click on the tick box next to the app and click the ‘remove’ button. This will completely remove the app from your profile.