How To Stop Facebook from Tracking You [2024 Guide]
With over 2.91 billion monthly active users worldwide, Facebook dominates the social media landscape. Nearly 40% of the global population has an account on its platform. While this connectedness provides value, many feel unease about the vast troves of personal data Facebook amasses in order to fuel its $118 billion ad empire.
You likely have questions about how much they know about you, how they‘re able to follow your digital footprint both on and off their services, and what control you have over your privacy. This comprehensive guide examines what information Facebook gathers, how its pervasive tracking works, and actionable steps you can take to limit its reach – without having to delete your account entirely.
What Does Facebook Know About You? The Staggering Amounts of Data It Collects
When you signed up for Facebook, you likely provided basic – but still sensitive – personal information like your name, email address, phone number, photos. Yet what you voluntarily input is just the tip of the data iceberg. The platform utilizes a variety of methods, from tracking technologies to partnerships, to gather an unrivaled depth of intelligence about you and your habits.
Profile and Account Information
Facebook mandates new users provide a first and last name plus either a mobile number or email address just to open an account. Additional profile fields you can fill out containing personal details include:
- Hometown
- Current city
- Education history
- Workplace
- Relationship status
- Interests/hobbies
- Bio/description
- Profile/cover photos
- Date of birth
- Gender
Beyond static profile data, Facebook also amasses more dynamic account activity statistics like:
- Total friends/connections
- Groups joined
- Events interested in or planning to attend
- Posts you share – including text, photos, videos, check-ins
- Comments and reactions to other‘s posts
- Shared content via News Feed
Facebook sees 72% of its users log in daily, spending an average of 58 minutes per day scrolling feeds, Messaging, and interacting with content. All this time you actively engage produces loads of behavioral data points.
Interactions and Conversations
Facebook capture extensive details about how you connect and converse within its ecosystem:
- Posts you like, share, or react to using icons like Love or Angry
- Comments you leave on posts, photos, videos
- Full message threads in Messenger and group chats
- Notifications you view in your account
- Friends and accounts you follow or subscribe to for updates
- Use of multimedia like Facebook Live broadcasting, Stories, or Reels
- Facebook Dating and/or Facebook Gaming activity
As you respond to content algorithmically served to you based on engagement patterns, it further strengthens Facebook‘s understanding of your interests and relationships.
Web and App Activity
Thanks to embedded cookies, pixels, and unique device identifiers, Facebook can track and link much of your external browsing back to your account profile. Some examples include:
- News articles you read from media sites
- Shopping habits and product searches
- Other social media platform usage like Instagram or TikTok
- Visits to third-party apps and websites
- Video sites like YouTube you view content on
- Political or nonprofit pages you visit
- Google/Bing searches you conduct
Facebook‘s Share and Like buttons that are integrated all over the web report back to Facebook when you interact with them offsite. This data stitching allows Facebook to continue learning about you even when you aren‘t on its platform.
Location Information
Facebook collects extensive location data points through:
- Location history listed in your profile like hometown or past cities lived in
- Location tagging in posts/photos that reveal visited businesses, restaurants, landmarks
- Nearby Friends feature that shows proximity to Facebook connections
- Location-based ad targeting that serves ads based on device position
- Apps like Messenger or Instagram that run in the background gathering location
- WiFi networks and cell tower signals connecting mobile devices
Location info allows Facebook to link your offline activities to your profile and target location-based content.
Partner and Third-Party Data
Facebook doesn‘t just rely on what you post and do on its platforms. It also obtains vast amounts of data about you from partnerships with third parties like:
- Apps or websites you login to using your Facebook account
- Retail loyalty programs connected to your account
- Data brokers who trade in consumer information
- Credit card transaction details if you make Facebook Pay purchases
- Businesses utilizing Facebook Pixel or ads tools
- Information synced from linked services like Instagram or WhatsApp
By combining data from first-party platform activity with third-party sources, Facebook cultivates comprehensive understanding of your offline and digital lives.
Device and Technical Information
When you access Facebook on your smartphone, computer, or other internet-connected devices, they harvest device-specific telemetry:
- Device make/model
- Operating system
- IP address
- Browser type and version
- Screen resolution
- Mobile carrier
- WiFi networks
- Plugins installed
- Timezone
Through device fingerprints, cookies, and unique identifiers like iOS/Android advertising IDs, Facebook can track and link your engagement across multiple devices.
Facebook leverages all this data to understand your interests, behaviors, habits, and connections at an intricate level – ultimately to serve you ads most likely to generate revenue based on your predicted engagement. But how exactly does it gather this intelligence? The tracking methods Facebook employs on you both on and off its platform.
How Facebook Follows You on Its Platform: Cookies, Pixels, and More
Facebook employs a suite of technical methods to monitor how you interact with its services. Some tracking techniques it uses include:
Cookies
Cookies are small text files installed on your device that track information like login details, site preferences, or browsing behavior. Facebook leverages browser cookies to:
- Remember your account login credentials so you stay logged in as you navigate Facebook
- Identify your particular device amongst the millions accessing the platform
- Serve customized content aligned to your profile and interests
- Enable quicker load times based on cached site assets
- Track interactions with Like/Share buttons or ads on Facebook
Because cookies have unique IDs, Facebook can use them to link your engagement across devices and sessions.
Pixels
The Facebook Pixel is an invisible tag installed on websites that allows Facebook to collect data about your visit like:
- Device type (desktop vs. mobile)
- Operating system
- IP address
- Engagement with site content
Pixels primarily enable Facebook advertisers to target and measure the effectiveness of their ads. But they also provide data back to Facebook about your non-Facebook browsing behavior.
Plugins
Facebook‘s ubiquitous Share and Like buttons implanted all over third-party sites function similarly to pixels, reporting back to Facebook when you click them and passing along info like the page URL. Interacting with Facebook plugins off their platform provides signals about your external interests.
Identifiers
Unique identifiers assigned to each browser or device you use to access Facebook allow the company to tie all your activity to your account profile, even across multiple devices. These include:
- Cookies IDs
- Advertising IDs like Apple‘s IDFA or Google‘s AAID
- Cached device signatures
Facebook can leverage these identifiers to connect the dots of your browsing behavior across smartphones, tablets, and computers.
Metadata
When you upload photos or videos directly to Facebook or its subsidiary platforms like Instagram, metadata embedded in those files can provide additional intelligence. Metadata reveals details like:
- Date/time of content creation
- Camera type
- Location coordinates of where photo/video was taken
- Descriptions or captions
By scanning metadata of multimedia you share, Facebook gleans more context about your activities.
Background Audio
If you enable microphone access, Facebook can pick up and analyze any ambient audio through your device mic to collect signals about your environment, like background noise during a video call.
Voluntary Engagement
All the information you actively input and engage with on Facebook – profile details, posts, comments, events, messages – contributes self-generated data about your habits and relationships. Facebook doesn‘t need to track anything covertly when you readily provide such personal data through voluntary use.
Facebook carefully claims it doesn‘t listen to your actual conversations without consent. However, the amount of data furnished through your willing Facebook activities grants deep understanding of your life.
How Facebook Follows You Around the Web: Pixels, Cookies, and Partnerships
Facebook‘s tracking capabilities extend well beyond its walled garden through integrations with millions of apps and websites. Facebook‘s code and tools are embedded all across the internet.
Cookies
The same browser cookies Facebook leverages on their platform to track your engagement also follow you around the web. Because cookies have unique identifiers, Facebook can link your external browsing behavior to your Facebook profile.
Pixels
Facebook Pixels implemented by third-party advertisers report back data about your visits to their sites and allow targeting ads based on your Facebook profile and interests. This off-platform data helps Facebook expand its intelligence.
Device/Advertising IDs
Unique device identifiers like Apple‘s IDFA or Android‘s AAID allow Facebook to tie your external activities on smartphones back to your Facebook account. Combined with cookies, they provide the missing link between disparate browsing histories.
Partnerships
Facebook also purchases data about users‘ offline habits from data brokers, advertisers, retailers, and other partners. This third-party data fills in offline gaps – like store loyalty programs or financial records – that Facebook then incorporates into its user profiles.
Integrated Services
Facebook subsidiaries like Instagram or WhatsApp and Facebook-connected apps like Spotify or Tinder often share back data about your engagement with their services, linked to your Facebook account.
This extensive cross-site tracking allows Facebook to monitor much of your browsing activity whether you‘re actively using its services or not. But with knowledge of how these tactics work, you can take steps to fight back against Facebook‘s data overreach.
How to Limit Facebook‘s Tracking and Take Back Your Privacy
If Facebook‘s hands always in your data jar makes you uneasy, you have options. While Facebook likely will continue expanding its data gathering practices as its business model depends on highly targeted advertising, users are not powerless. By being informed and proactive, you can significantly reduce what Facebook knows about you.
Adjust Facebook Privacy Settings
Start by limiting visibility and visibility into your existing Facebook activity. In your account‘s Privacy Settings:
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Restrict old posts visibility to "Friends Only" – This removes them from public view.
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Disable facial recognition – Stops Facebook from identifying you in photos/videos.
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Turn off Active Status – Stops non-friends from seeing when you‘re on Facebook.
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Remove yourself from ad targeting – Opt out of allowing your profile data used for ads.
These choices put guardrails around how much personal data already within Facebook can be leveraged.
Limit Ad Tracking
Take control of how your off-Facebook activity influences the advertisements you see:
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Reset your Facebook ad interests – Clears topic targeting based on prior likes and shares.
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Turn off relevant ads and partners – Opt out of external website data impacting ads.
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Disable information about Facebook‘s advertisers – Reduces transparency into why you see specific ads.
This reduces the linkage between your external browsing and personalized ads.
Adjust App Settings and Permissions
Be strict about what integrations you allow between Facebook and other apps/services. In your Facebook Settings:
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Remove unnecessary app permissions – Disable messaging, contacts, or location access.
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Unlink unused connections – Delete account associations with third-party platforms you no longer use.
The less data portability you enable, the less tracking between Facebook and external services.
Manage Off-Facebook Activity
Regain control over how Facebook tracks your external browsing by:
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Blocking future off-Facebook activity tracking
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Disconnecting previously collected activity
These options completely sever the link between your non-Facebook web history and your account profile.
Leverage Browser and Device Settings
Take advantage of built-in tools on your devices and browsers to block tracking:
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Delete cookies and cached data – Clears identifier files and site assets that retain your activity history.
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Reset advertising ID – On iOS and Android, resetting your ad ID prevents linkage of past activity.
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Install anti-tracking browser extensions – Tools like Privacy Badger and Ghostery detect and block invisible trackers.
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Use privacy-focused browsers – Firefox Focus, Brave, and Tor Browser minimize tracking by default.
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Run a VPN – Encrypts your web traffic so trackers can‘t monitor your activities across sites and services.
Enable these security layers, especially on mobile devices, for protection beyond Facebook‘s walled garden.
Monitor Your Digital Footprint
Regularly check what data Facebook has saved about you:
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Review Facebook Information – Provides transparency into interests, contacts, ads, etc. tied to your account.
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Download your information archive – Gives a comprehensive snapshot of your Facebook activity history and profile.
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Install data management browser tools like Disconnect or Privacy Bee which alert you to trackers and data leaks.
Proactively monitoring your digital footprint makes it easier to spot and promptly remove unwanted data sharing.
Bottom Line
Facebook‘s business model incentivizes gathering as much personalized data as possible across its owned platforms and around the web in order to drive ad revenue. But just because Facebook wants your data doesn‘t mean you have to provide it.
By leveraging privacy settings, being cautious about off-Facebook connections, actively managing your digital footprint, and using tracker blocking tools, you can dramatically minimize the information Facebook collects about you. While deleting your account is the only way to fully escape Facebook‘s data dragnet, with the right knowledge and protections, you can use its services on your terms and take back control of your privacy.
