Some people think that Facebook shows them ads by listening into their conversations. There is no proof that this has happened however Facebook has just revealed that they don’t need to listen to you because they have so many partnerships with websites and applications that they know most of what you do on the Internet already.
Thanks to the new California Consumer Privacy Act tech companies are being forced to tell us all what data they’ve collected about us. The new “Your Off-Facebook Activity” page shows that Facebook has recently tracked me across a shocking total 556 mobile apps and websites.
Facebook explains that they use this information to personalise the advertising:
“Show you relevant ads and introduce you to new products and services eg You may have seen ads for hotel deals if you’ve been visiting travel websites”.
“Create a more personalized experience for you by suggesting things you might be interested in, like events you might want to go to eg You may have seen events for fitness classes if you’ve recently purchased or viewed athletic apparel”.
If you want to you can turn off this tracking in the future.
Turning this off will disconnect your future activity online from your Facebook account after 48 hours. This will also prevent you from logging into apps and websites with Facebook because your web and app activity outside of Facebook will be disconnected from your account.
Facebook will still receive activity from the businesses and organisations you visit which may be used for measurement purposes and to make improvements to their ads systems, but it will be disconnected from your account. You’ll still see the same number of ads on Facebook. Your ad preferences and actions you take on Facebook only will be used to show you relevant ads.
Next you need to go back to the Off Facebook Activity page and delete your past tracking history.
Lastly I suggest you go the Your Ad Preferences page and turn off 3 more things
Unfortunately because it requires so many clicks and different steps not many people will make these changes so please make the changes yourself and encourage your friends and relatives to do so.
