Take Control of Facebook Game Applications | Update #3

Updated March 1, 2010. This blog writing was originally published in December of last year and now reflects changes to Facebook’s user interface since then.

Despite the below information being widely distributed across the internet and residing within Facebook itself, I still come across folks on social networks, almost daily, who complain about Facebook game apps. Some even say they may quit Facebook because of the app messages in their Feed. This writing represents my effort to promote harmony between those who are annoyed by Facebook game apps and those who enjoy them.

It should be noted that today, March 1, Facebook officially ended app notifications.  Your Feed will still display app messages unless you filter or block them, but you should no longer receive notifications in your Notifications Tab.  This tab sits in the upper left-hand area of your Facebook and shows red numbers over an Earth icon.  If you’re still getting app notifications and don’t want to wait for your Facebook to get the new feature, simply click the Notifications Earth icon, scroll to the bottom and click See All Notifications and in the right column uncheck the apps you want to silence.  Apps you block using the methods explained below will also be blocked from sending notifications.

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Imagine if you could selectively block your friend or mate from saying anything that annoys you.  What if you could press a few buttons and keep an old flame out of your business?  Unlike relationships in the meatspace, Facebook does provide such tools which allow almost absolute control over what you see and what sees you on Facebook.  But if you desire absolute privacy, don’t put private information on the Internet.

You may not like Facebook games, aka apps, but your best friend may have just reached Level 32 on Farmville and may be flooding your Feed with updates and messages.  While these Feed messages may be worthless, nauseating, space-filling noise to you, they’re likely important to your friend.  For many apps, these messages alert other players to special prizes or rewards.

In addition to the Feed updates, Facebook game apps do another thing that may alarm you — they access certain information from you, even if you have not authorized the respective app.  That’s right, games your Facebook friends are playing have the ability to access your information, even if you are not playing.

According to Facebook:

All applications must respect existing privacy settings. For example, if an application creates a slideshow of your photo albums, and a certain album is set to “Only My Friends”, it may only display that slideshow to your friends.

Simply put, Facebook says they will not break your own privacy settings.  If your friend can see your relationship status, the app he/she joins can also see that status.

Take Control

1. Hide The App In Your Feeds.

This is simple.  Just find a message from the offending app in your Live Feed or News Feed, hover your cursor in the right column and click Hide. All future messages from that app will not appear in your Feeds.

To un-hide the app or see what apps you have hidden, go to your Top News Feed and scroll to the bottom of the page and click Edit Options.

2. Block The App At Its Source.

If you want to keep an app from accessing your information and from sending you invitations, you can go directly to the specific app and block it. Go to the Facebook Search field at the top of any Facebook page and enter the name of the app. In the search results, be sure you choose the game’s Application Page and not the game’s Fan Page — it will be labeled as an application in the search results.

From the Application Page

Dialog Box After Clicking "Block Application"

To view the apps you may have blocked, go the top right of your Facebook page and click the Account menu, then choose Privacy, then select Applications and Websites, then Blocked Applications. At this settings window you can also unblock Facebook apps.

Here is what that window looks like:

3. Block Specific Friends From Sending App Invites.

To block specific friends from sending app invites, go to the Account menu at the top right of your Facebook page, then choose Privacy, then select Applications and Websites, then Ignore Application Invites.

Enter in the offending friend’s name and your peace is restored.

Here is what that window looks like:

4. Modify What Info Apps Can Access.

This step will apply to all apps — it literally defines what information Facebook apps can access in your profile.

Back to the Account menu — click it and then choose Privacy, then select Applications and Websites, then What your friends can share about you.

Below is what you should see:

The above shows my Application Privacy Settings.  I’ve chosen not to share any of the information shown in this list with Facebook apps.  Remember, apps your friends use can access the information checked in the above list, even if you are not using that respective app. Also note that apps will always have access to your publicly available information: “Name, Profile Picture, Gender, Current City, Networks, Friend List, and Pages.”

If you wish to keep your information private from all Facebook apps, you basically have to remove all of the Facebook apps you may be using by first going to the Account menu then clicking the Applications option. On this Settings page you can view apps by Recently Used, Bookmarked, Added to Profile, Authorized, Allowed to Post, Granted Additional Permissions and Facebook Prototypes.

Authorized Apps is a good place to start cleaning up what is likely a surprising number of accumulated apps.  If you are on a determined mission to tidy up your current apps list, be careful you don’t remove an app you may be using!

When I first wrote this article I played many Facebook games, so I don’t mean to show any bias against the games used as examples above.  Farmville was actually one of my favorites.  For me, some of these games offered simple brain decompression after a hectic day.  My eighty year-old Grandfather still plays Farmville and I remain sensitive to letting the gaming folks enjoy themselves.

In a community now consisting of hundreds of millions of users, Facebook is wildly diverse.  Some folks like to use Facebook in different ways than you use it. Facebook has provided the tools to block what you don’t want to see and protect the information you’d like to try to keep private.  It’s up to you to apply these tools and create your own ideal Facebook experience, while letting other folks create theirs.

Note: Skitch for OS X used above for the screen captures and notations.  I think it’s a great OS X app.

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