Facebook is creepy.
This may be the understatement of the year for a company that experimented on its users to see if it could affect their mood by showing them happy or sad posts (it could), but it's no less true.
I keep my Facebook account to stay current with old friends, participate in groups for work and because everyone else has one.
The best way to use Facebook while limiting the site's spying ability is to use Tinfoil. Like the name suggests, Tinfoil is a Facebook app for the paranoid, for people who would rather not enable location services for Facebook's app.
The app is minimalist, providing a basic wrapper around Facebook's mobile website.
Tinfoil downloads content from Facebook within the app; preventing the kind of shenanigans Facebook on Android is prone to pulling.
For whatever reason, Facebook's Android app has never been great. For years it used super-slow HTML5 code.
Then it forcibly downloaded an app called Facebook Camera onto Android users' phones without asking permission, and it was un-installable until users protested.
Then it removed messaging from the app and forced users to download a separate app until they protested.
Speaking of permission, check out the list of permissions the official Facebook app requires in order to download on Android.
It knows what apps the user has downloaded, what email accounts are on phone, as well as their contacts, calendar, text messages, location, camera, microphone and device ID.
Facebook's Android app is great for a business based around collecting information and using it to sell ads. Don't let Facebook gather so much information.
Use Tinfoil, because it provides a perfectly functional Facebook experience with a fraction of the permissions (pictures and location, the latter used only with your permission).
The worst thing about Tinfoil is it's entirely dependent on Facebook's mobile site. If Facebook changes something, Tinfoil can't do anything about it.
The app could also stand to be updated more frequently.
Tinfoil's source code is posted on GitHub.com and can be checked by anyone for shady behavior. It's far more trustworthy than Facebook, which is closed source.
Tinfoil adds a couple features on top of the basic web wrapper functions. Users can open a menu by swiping in from the right with options such as jump to top and refresh.
There's even a kill button to close the app completely when you're done with it.
Tinfoil is free on Android through the Play Store. It is not on iOS, but iPhone users can do the next best thing by pinning a bookmark to their home screen.
Open Safari, go to Facebook.com and press box-and-arrow icon.
Select "Add to Home Screen" and "Add." I tried it and got a blue "F" icon on my home screen linking straight to Facebook's mobile website.
Though it's not as convenient as having a dedicated app like Tinfoil, using the mobile site is the best way to browse Facebook without giving it as many hooks into a phone.
For the Facebook user who can't delete Facebook, use Tinfoil or a home screen bookmark.
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