 |
| Facebook could track you. |
The Ways Facebook Could Track You And How You Can Stop It.
You must have been curious to know if Facebook Monitors Your actions at one point in time or another.
Yes. It has happened to all of us at some point, and it sure is surprising when you are talking about something and then open your Facebook app to find that exact item staring back at you probably on an advert.
Lol! Facebook has given answers to this. They aren’t listening to what you say Everytime.
But Facebook knows almost everything about you. Sometimes, it knows what you are going to say, do—or buy—even before you do and it’s because Facebook collects a lot of data.
So It’s easy to see reasons why there is a growing lack of trust in Social Networks. This is because social network’s been caught leaking user data; it’s been involved in some privacy scandals, and probably hacked multiple times. No one could actually blame you if you were thinking about deleting the social network.
How Facebook tracks you online.
Facebook tracks you as you browse online. You’d need to be hiding under a rock to have missed out on the latest iOS 14.5 Apple update which gives people the option to opt into tracking across other apps and websites and Facebook relies in order to serve adverts to you. It’s also for this reason that some the social network has been in a battle with Apple for the oversix months.
But denying tracking on your iPhone would not cover your activity log when using Facebook on an internet browser. You can control this by using a little-known tool launched by Facebook last year which is called Off-Facebook Activity.
You can find the Off-Facebook Activity by going to your Facebook Account at the top right hand corner of your browser then click on Settings > Your Facebook Information and then scroll down to Off-Facebook Activity.
Facebook has described this setting as “a summary of activity that businesses and organizations share with us concerning your interactions, such as visiting their apps or websites.”
This means that data such as your purchases will now be sent back to Facebook so it can serve you back with an ad offering, for an example, money off your next purchase from a site you have already communicated with.
Once you have gotten over the length of the list of companies that you have interacted with, you can Manage your Off-Facebook Activity, and clear your history, so your activity history will be disconnected from your account. This wouldn’t stop you from seeing the ads, they will just be less targeted.
Facebook still collects data even without tracking.
It has your date of birth if you’ve entered it. It has your preferences, and it knows who you might have interacted with and when. These datas are used to feed the social network’s massive data machine.
So in conclusion, Facebook isn’t listening to your conversations but it doesn’t need to. Some Privacy controls such as Off-Facebook Activity and the Apple’s ATT can help, but also know that these do not stop Facebook from collecting your personal data.