Some myths have continued to spread about the Internet’s largest social network despite being continually debunked. Here are our top 6…
Facebook doesn’t let you view who viewed your profile, or how often. It’s that simple. Not only that, but they don’t let anyone else have that information either, so any third party websites or apps telling you they can give you that information are just lying to you.
The closest you can get are by using apps that count the number of times someone has interacted with your content, for example by liking or commenting on one of your posts. But these apps do not (and cannot) take into account the number of times someone has merely visited your profile. It just can’t be done!
So if any app, website or anything else claims to tell you who is secretly checking up on you, or stalking you on Facebook, they’re lying.
This gem actually pre-dates Facebook and we discuss it in much more detail in our post here. Facebook does not – and almost certainly will not – ever charge people to use Facebook. It’s true that Facebook has flirted with charging for some premium services such as messaging non-friends, but these have never stuck. Also it’s true that Facebook does charge Facebook users for boosting posts to reach more people, but this isn’t something that most Facebook users will ever do.
So please ignore messages that claim Zuckerberg is charging users, or that you have to copy and paste a message for Facebook to remain free. They are lies. Facebook is free to use and always will be. It even says so on their login page.
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It’s true that any account you block on Facebook will no longer be able to see any of your information. What is often overlooked is that is takes only a few seconds to create a brand new account that will have access to any public information on your Facebook account.
As such, it is important to realise that any information you have listed as publicly available is potentially available to anyone, even people you’ve blocked. Such public information will include your profile picture, name, cover photo and any public posts, about information or photos you’re tagged in that are set to public. This is why we always recommend you regularly review this information so you know what you’re sharing with everyone.
This is definitely a myth! There are a number of ways your friends could inadvertently post spammy or malicious links, either from their timeline or even as a message to you. Rogue Facebook apps, for example, could post spammy links. Or your friend could have fallen for a competition scam that instructed them to share a post to win a prize. Just because a link was posted by a friend, even someone you trust, it doesn’t mean it’s safe.
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Providing you’re not installing all those dodgy or suspicious apps, your personal information isn’t given (or sold) to advertisers, though this is a common misconception. You often see targeted adverts on Facebook because the social network pairs the information it knows about you (such as the information you give to Facebook and the information Facebook collects about you) with relevant advertisers. But your information isn’t sold directly to the advertisers, who won’t know the identities of the users who see their adverts.
No. Just no. Copying and pasting legal sounding jargon has absolutely no effect whatsoever on what Facebook can or cannot do with your information. Whatsoever. If you want to know your rights, read Facebook’s terms of service.