Instagram-Facebook: Shopping online, searching for a product or installing a new app are all part of your digital habits. But many users do not know that such activity is not limited to just that website or app. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, also obtains user data from external platforms. The company says that with this, content and advertisements can be shown better, but questions regarding privacy are bound to arise. The good thing is that Meta gives users complete options to view and control it.
What exactly is Off-Meta Activity?
Meta tracks information from external websites and apps through a special feature called Your activity off Meta technologies. This includes data that is shared when you visit a website, open an app, search for something, or make an online purchase.
Suppose you saw shoes on an e-commerce site. That website may share your activity with Meta and after some time you may start seeing ads for shoes on Instagram or Facebook. According to Meta, this data is used for ad analysis, personalization and improving user experience.
How to see which websites are sharing your data?
This information is found in the Meta Accounts Center on both Facebook and Instagram. On Facebook, tap the profile icon, then go to Settings & Privacy and open Settings. From here go to Accounts Center then select Your information and permissions and tap on Your activity off Meta technologies.
The process is almost the same in Instagram also. Tap on the profile icon, open the menu, go to Settings and then go to Accounts Center and open the same Off-Meta Activity section. Here you will see a list of websites and apps that have recently shared data.
How to delete or disconnect tracked activity?
By going to this section, you can disconnect any one website or business separately so that it cannot share your information in future. If desired, multiple sources can also be removed simultaneously.
If you want to clear all the data then the option of Clear activity is also available. With this, the information collected till now is removed from the account, although some data may be used in anonymous form.
How to stop data tracking in the future?
Meta also provides an option to completely stop future Off-Meta activity. After turning it on, external websites and apps will not be able to automatically share your new data with Facebook or Instagram. This may make ads slightly less relevant but increases your control over privacy.
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