How to Control Your Facebook App and Website Info

By Carolyn Abram from Facebook For Dummies, 4th Edition

On the Facbook Privacy page, there are settings that let you control how apps, games, and websites interact with your timeline. To reach the Privacy page click the Account menu, the white downward-facing arrow, in the big blue bar on top, and then clicking Privacy Settings. Then click the Edit Setting link to the right of this section to go to the Apps, Games, and Websites privacy page.

An application is a blanket term used to describe pieces of software that use Facebook data, even when those applications weren’t built by Facebook. Developers all over the world build games, websites, and useful tools around the data you already share on Facebook. To make it easier to get people using these applications, they import the data from Facebook. This page lets you control which applications get what data:

Apps You Use: This is a list of all the applications you use, in order of what you’ve used most recently. Apps you use require direct permission from you to begin accessing your data and posting to your timeline.
How People Bring Your Info to the Apps They Use: Even if you don’t use applications, your friends may. Similar to the way that you may not add photos to Facebook, but your friends may add and tag photos of you, your friends may also pass on information about you to applications. You can restrict what applications can see.
Instant Personalization: Instant personalization is a Facebook feature that basically lets certain Facebook partners access your public Facebook information using browser information, as opposed to using the permission dialog boxes that most apps use before they get access to any information. These partners are websites like Bing, Yelp, and Pandora. You can turn off Instant Personalization by clicking Edit Settings and disabling it on the Instant Personalization privacy page. You may be presented with a pop-up window with a video first. You can watch the video or just close the window to continue onto the Instant Personalization page.
Public Search: Public Search enables people who are searching your name in a search engine like Google or Bing to find your Facebook timeline in the results. You can prevent this from happening by clicking Edit Settings and disabling it on the ensuing page. If you leave Public Search enabled, click the See Preview link to view how your listing appears to others.