(Credit: Facebook)
Facebook has never been a place for privacy and security, and Meta makes it a matter of policy. The company doesn't just have access to your activity when you use Facebook and Instagram. It also knows what you do when you navigate away from its apps and websites in order to personalize your experience and send targeted ads.
This includes any information that websites, apps, and organizations share with Facebook or Instagram about your actions with them. It can be visiting a website, opening an app, searching for an item, or purchasing a product. If you buy a pair of shoes from an online clothing store, that store could share your activity with Facebook, which then serves you an ad about shoes.
Fortunately, Meta offers ways for you to review and modify your privacy settings. The Your Activity off Meta Technologies tool allows you to review and delete the data collected about you when you’re using other websites. You can also disable off-Meta activity entirely and even download the data to analyze it offline. Facebook’s Privacy Checkup tool also allows you to determine how much data you reveal, and to whom. Here's how to use these features.
View Your Off-Meta Activity
To get started from Facebook, open the website or app, and select your profile icon. From there, go to Settings & privacy > Settings. Click Accounts Center, select Your information and permissions, and then choose Your activity off Meta technologies.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)To reach your off-Meta activity on Instagram, open the website or app. In the app, tap the profile icon in the lower right and select the hamburger icon at the top. If you're on the website, click the More icon at the bottom of the left pane and select Settings. From there, head to Accounts Center > Your information and permissions and tap Your activity off Meta technologies.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)Manage Your Off-Meta Activity
Meta allows you to remove individual entities from tracking your activity. You can also remove all past activity and block any future actions from being tracked. Your Meta Accounts Center page opens and displays a pop-up message regarding your activity off Meta technologies. If you wish to learn more about how the tool works, select Learn more about activity off Meta technologies.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)If you have any recent activity on Facebook, select the Recent activity option. Here, you’ll see a list of advertisers, companies, brands, and other accounts that have sent information to Facebook. Select a specific account and you can disconnect it from Facebook. Hit the Disconnect button, read the details on what that does, and then click Confirm.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)To disconnect multiple accounts, return to the initial screen and select Disconnect specific activity. Select all the accounts you want to disconnect, click Continue, and then click Confirm.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)If you wish to clear all activity that Facebook has collected, return to the Your activity off Meta technologies screen, select Clear previous activity, and then click Clear. All your activity history will then be removed.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)You can also tell Meta to automatically disconnect future activity from brands that share such information. From the Your activity off Meta technologies screen, select Manage future activity and click Disconnect future activity > Continue, then confirm your action.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)Export Off-Meta Information
You can review your Off-Meta activity by exporting the data. To do this from the Facebook website, click your profile icon at the top. From there, go to Settings & privacy > Settings > Accounts Center > Your information and permissions and click Export your information. From Instagram, click More > Settings > Accounts Center > Your information and permissions and select Export your information.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)Click Create export, then select the Facebook or Instagram profile you wish to use and click Next. At the next window, choose whether you want to export the data to your computer or mobile device or to an external service such as Dropbox or Google Drive.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)Next, choose the criteria for information you’d like to export. You’re able to customize which information is included, what date range it should cover, the format, and the quality of photos and other media. Select each criteria to customize it. When done, click Start export. Your download is then generated.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)You’ll receive an email confirming your request. Another email will notify you when the download is ready. At the Download Your Information screen, click the Download button to save the information as a zip file on your computer.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)Select the profiles for the files you want to download. Unzip the file and open it to review the information. From the extracted files, open the start_here.html file. You can now view whatever categories of information you downloaded.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)Run the Facebook Privacy Checkup
Facebook also offers a Privacy Checkup tool to help you protect your account and data. To run the tool on the website, click your profile icon, go to Settings & Privacy, and select Privacy Checkup. At the Privacy Checkup window, click Who can see what you share and then click Continue.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)At the Profile Information window, review the settings for your phone number, email addresses, and birthday. Click the button next to each one, and choose whether to change it to Public, Friends, Only Me, or a specific Facebook list. You probably want this information to remain private or only visible to friends or a specific group. When done, click Next.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)At the Audience window, set the option for who should see future posts. You’ll likely want to set this to Friends. The Limit Past Posts option changes past posts that were seen by the public or friends of friends to only friends. To do this, click the Limit button and click OK, then Next.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)At the Tagging window, choose how you want to handle posts in which you’re tagged. You should limit such posts so that only you or only friends can see such posts. You can also review tags that people add to your own posts before they go live. When done, click Next.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)You can block specific people from seeing things you post, starting conversations with you, or trying to add you as a friend. To do this, click Blocking at the Blocking window. You can then edit the various settings for your profile, pages, messages, and invites.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)Back at the Privacy Checkup, select How people can find you on Facebook and then click Continue. At the Friend Requests window, click the button if you wish to change who can send you friend requests. Click Next, then decide who can look you up on Facebook by your phone number and email address, then click Next again.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)At the Search Engines window, make sure to turn off the switch next to Do you want search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile? Click Next.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)Click Review Another Topic, then select Your Data Settings on Facebook and click Continue. Choose Apps and websites to remove any apps or sites for which you used Facebook to sign in.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)Back at the Privacy Checkup window, select How to Keep Your Account Secure and click Continue. At the Review Your Password window, click Change Password if you’re concerned that it was compromised or you want to change it to something more secure, then click Next.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)At the window for Add an Extra Layer of Security to Your Account, click Get Started to add two-factor authentication to protect your Facebook account. You can choose SMS to receive a text message, select an authenticator app such as Google Authenticator, or use a physical security key.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)Select Review Another Topic, then choose Your ad preferences on Facebook and click Continue. Read the first screen for this topic and click Next. Turn off the switch for any pieces of information that you don’t want Facebook to use to serve you targeted ads and then click Next.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)At the Social Interactions window, choose who can see your social interactions alongside ads. Click Next, then click Review Another Topic, and you’re done.
(Credit: PCMag / Meta)