6 steps for those who want to 'keep tabs' on the use of personal data by social networks and keep them in relation to them.

Twitter and Facebook have great control over our online lives. But according to the MIT Tech Review, there are 6 ways to get control back from them.

We trust our friends and social networks to help us communicate with our parents, get the latest news, and share ridiculous photos. However, as we learn more and more day by day, this linked life has a price: the information that you did not provide at the beginning is often secretly retrieved from the bulk of your personal data, as you do not want to.

Twitter is also very innocent. After the troll and the fake news, he is asking for help to find a way to measure whether the information he currently has is healthy.

What can you do if you feel that social networks benefit you?

1 - Shoot them with their own weapons

The algorithms on Facebook and Twitter control a large part of what you see in your streams. For example, you can always see posts from your best friend, but you can not see the posts of an old roommate who is often online and not touching too much. Or more interesting, why do you see news only from certain sources?

Using algorithms such as Gobo, a project developed by researchers at the Civil Media Center in MIT Media Lab, you can work with these algorithms. Connects to your Twitter and Facebook accounts and allows you to precisely control your flows as companies can not. The slider bar allows you to adjust factors such as how serious or stupid the stories in your news streams are, the percentage of publications you see in men or women, or the amount of political diversity you are exposed to. The vehicle also allows you to see what causes your streams to lift.

2 - The next step, flows

What do you have to do if you want to deal with good flows? Try using something like Feedless, an iPhone application that's found on the iOS Safari browser and blocks the majority of content on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter feeds (although it's free for Facebook, you'll need to pay US $ 10 per year for Instagram and Twitter).

Once you've enabled for Facebook, you can continue to see all your posts, including all your profiles and notifications, as well as those notifications. You can also send status updates. However, existing and algorithmically guided news feeds are disappearing.

3 - Go to niche areas

It is almost impossible for new global social networks to be completely removed from the market because it is very difficult to remove everything from the networks we already use.

However, there are some online communities, many of which are dedicated to specific interests.

Are you interested in books? Try Litsy. Are you trying to show me your designs? Maybe Dribbble will do it for you. Check out Blind if you want to connect anonymously with people working at your company, so you can chat honestly about what's going on there.

4 - No advertiser, not today!

Have you ever wondered what types of data you share with Twitter and Facebook are shared with advertisers? At least on Twitter, it's not so difficult to understand how ads target you and to deflect your target or make it impossible to target you.

If you click on the "Twitter Facts" section, you can see your password and see any kind of information the social network has collected, including a list of "Advertisers Interests" that shows everything the advertisers are interested in.

You can disable all of these items at once without checking individual items in this list, or you can turn off the advertisement personalization altogether. To reach this option, go to the bottom of the list and click "Personalization and Data Settings."

You can also see and manage similar information on Facebook. Under "Settings," click "Ads" to see a collection of social networks that you have collected about you and shared with advertisers. Click on "Interests" to unmark individual interests that Facebook uses to target ads in any category (everything from design to food), or "Categories" to remove the categories that advertisers have put you in ("Technology Early Adopters" or Such as "Frequent Traveler").

5 - Nuclear option

If you really hate Facebook and Twitter, you can take even more difficult steps, including deleting your accounts, but nets can have trouble doing that.

If you are using a web browser on Twitter, click on the user profile profile in the top right corner of the page, then click "Settings and Privacy". From this menu, click "Account" and scroll down to the page where the "Disable Your Account" link is located. Remember, it takes a while to really close it. One month after regular accounts are disabled, verified accounts are deleted after one year.

Your options on Facebook are more detailed and confusing. From a web browser, click the small arrow at the top of the page and go to "Settings" from the drop-down menu. Under "General Account Settings," click "Manage Account." It offers a variety of options, including disabling your account. This means that you did not delete your account, but you basically did not wait and removed most of your personal data.

Are you ready to permanently remove Facebook from your life? This link will help you do this, but you will have to wait for up to 3 months to clear all your information from the system.

If you want to keep your account for now and delete it after you have been transferred in the Hereafter, there is a way to do that too. Click "Request Account Deletion" to ask Facebook to do this in the future.

One more tip: You can also download a copy of all your Facebook data. This option will appear under the general account settings list. On Twitter, you can request your archive from the "Account" tab in user settings.

6. Make your own social network

This ears may be a bit out of the ordinary, but you can make your own social network and invite your friends to join.

You can quickly try this out with an initiative called Mighty Networks, founded by Gina Bianchini, who created the DIY social networking company Ning. With Mighty Networks, it's easy to set up a network for friends and family. With this free option, you have the possibility to invite an unlimited number of people and pay a monthly fee to access several features or run your own social service.

Source: Technology Review