New Facebook tool reveals the scary amount of data you are sharing online

Most of us give away an alarming amount of information to total strangers by using Facebook – from where we went to school to our favourite pubs.

Even supposedly ‘savvy’ users who adjust privacy settings could be giving enough away for hackers to impersonate them online.

A new tool by Supremo.TV highlights just some of the information we share with Facebook without even thinking.

The tool highlights information shared, for instance, by using Facebook to log in to other sites – which allows Facebook to capture information.

To use the tool, you click through with Facebook login details, and the tool highlights things you might not realise Facebook knows – such as the exact date you visited a particular place, or what your ‘favourite’ place is.

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Facebook shares all your ‘Likes’ by default – along with a lot of other information, such as where you live and (if you opt in) where you go.

‘If you’ve ever pressed ‘Login with Facebook’ on a website, you’re giving Facebook permission to share sensitive data with the site you are visiting’, said Ian Cox of Supremo.tv, a small web design and development agency.

‘In today’s digital age, people are sharing just about everything on social media sites like Facebook.

‘But most are unaware of just how much can be seen by brands, businesses and, in some cases, criminals,.’

Cox says that people should think carefully about what they share with others via Facebook.

‘As tempting as it may be to rejoice about the fact that the whole family is going on a weekend away, keep in mind that you may be inadvertently letting criminals know that your house is empty during this time.’

Mark Zuckerberg made a New Year’s Resolution to address Facebook’s problems this year.

In a Facebook post, he said, ‘Facebook has a lot of work to do – whether it’s protecting our community from abuse and hate, defending against interference by nation states, or making sure that time spent on Facebook is time well spent.

‘We won’t prevent all mistakes or abuse, but we currently make too many errors enforcing our policies and preventing misuse of our tools.’