Can Facebook apps “hack” your account?

One question we are often asked is can Facebook apps can “hack” your Facebook account? So here we explain what Facebook apps can and cannot do and go over some important security advice.

When the average computer user uses the word “hack” or “hacker”, they probably conjure up an image more akin to how Hollywood portrays this type of tech savvy; a person or program capable of penetrating firewalls and writing complex algorithms in complex programming code to bypass password screens as if by magic.

It rarely works like that.

Facebook apps are small programs created by third party developers that ask for certain permissions to your Facebook account when you install them. Those permissions may involve accessing certain data about you, or being able to do certain tasks on your Facebook account.

While Facebook apps do lots of different things (depending on the permissions they request when you install them) they cannot automatically “hack” your Facebook account. For example, they cannot access your Facebook password nor do they provide anyone else with full control of your Facebook account when they install.

Additionally, Facebook apps are not installed on your computer or phone, and don’t have access to your device. As such, they cannot automatically infect your device with malware.

Sponsored Content. Continued below...

So in “Hollywood” sense, no, Facebook apps cannot “hack” your Facebook account. Installing them doesn’t magically allow someone to obtain access to your Facebook account, or your computer.

But of course this doesn’t mean Facebook apps are always safe. They can be used for nefarious purposes, and they can be used as a first stepping stone for a number of different scams.

For example, Facebook apps can – if given permission – post links or messages from your Facebook account that could be nefarious or spammy. These could lead anyone who clicked on them to websites that could trick someone into installing malware onto them (though that someone would need to agree to download files to their computer after clicking a link.)

Sponsored Content. Continued below...

Facebook apps also have access to certain data about a user who installs them, information that, as the Cambridge Analytica incident demonstrated, can be sold to third party companies.

The bottom line is that installing a Facebook app doesn’t automatically allow someone to compromise your Facebook account, but they can be nefarious and used to trick Facebook users into falling for online scams down the line. As such, we always recommend only installing Facebook apps from developers that you trust.