Facebook works with outside app developers to share what you’re up to, which can be a great thing (yay, we can listen to the same music at the same time) or a burden (boo, my boss just found out I’m reading articles on how to steal stuff from work).

If you’re concerned about Facebook sharing what you are doing elsewhere on the internet — including stuff you do when you think you are logged out from Facebook — here’s how you disable sharing on Facebook on an app-by-app basis. That way, you can share the stuff you want, and not the stuff you don’t. (This is also possible within certain apps, like Spotify, which added a privacy mode after similar concerns surfaced.)

You may not even realize this information is being shared, unless you keep an eye on your Timeline, which is the page you see on Facebook when you click on your own name, so you might want to check there periodically to see what you’re sharing with everyone else. If you see an app sharing stuff when you don’t want it to (or if you want to take preventative measures, here’s how you make it stop:

1. Click the little arrow next to your name at the upper right of Facebook:

2. Click the Edit Settings link next to Apps and Websites:

3. You can turn off all apps’ sharing with a single click, but for many users, it’s worth disabling only certain ones (news apps seem like good candidates for disabling, while music apps seem pretty harmless, but your mileage may vary).

4. By selecting any app from the list, I can grant or rescind its ability to share my activity (as well as whatever else its permissions allow):

(Top photo courtesy of Flickr/thecrazyfilmgirl)