I thought it may be worth sharing this post I did for my radio show listeners last week. Consider it to be the basic minimum level of protection.

If you want to continue using the facebook data-mining site, here are a few tips that also help improve battery and CPU use.

The recent revalation about Cambridge Analytica (not a real word) came as no surprise to me. You must bare in mind that the sole purpose of advert driven social media is to mine for data, so that you can be targetted for adverts. Nobody cares if you buy anything, only that you have seen more adverts with trackers, and visited sites with beacons.

  1. Disconnect/remove the facebook account in your phone accounts section, so it cannot sync.

  2. Remove and replace facebook messenger with Trillian (also supports google chat). https://trillian.im/get/android/ https://trillian.im/get/iphone/ https://trillian.im/web/ (Desktop versions are available with more features)

  3. Remove the battery draining FB app. and replace with an Open Source front-end or sandbox with privacy features. https://staging.f-droid.org/search?q=facebook https://itunes.apple.com/us/genre/id6005

  4. in web browsers; install FB Purity or Social Fixer. You may have to allow them access to "Private windows" https://www.facebook.com/fluffbustingpurity http://socialfixer.com

Use a Private tab or window to view or log into the site. This will disable some functionality, and when you close the window it will delete any cookies and local history.

Use a tracker blocking extension such as Ghostery (now Open source) or Disconnect.me https://www.ghostery.com https://disconnect.me (also available as a VPN app)

If you want an unlimited free but basic VPN extension or app, try Browsec https://browsec.com

Remember. If an app wants to manage your SMS messages as an extra feature, there is 1 reason for it. Data mining. Only use an Open Source app that is specifically designed as an SMS tool on its own. Encryption is also a feature of some SMS apps, such as "Silence", but as always both parties need a compatible app. https://staging.f-droid.org/search?q=sms https://silence.im