Facebook Tracking
Facebook Tracking: If you’re like most Americans, you will give more than 5 years of your living skimming through social media. That’s more time than you’ll spend in your own kitchen bathroom or garage and considering all of the controversies with Facebook lately.
It is more relevant now than ever to spring clean your social media. The data will either get a notice at the top of your newsfeed. Moreover, you can go through a dedicated link in Facebook’s Help Center.
Most people know that Facebook has information about them. People submit things like name, age, gender, hometowns, interest and birthdays, etc. Moreover, they assume that Facebook is collecting that data. But Facebook has much more data on most people than they realize.
Facebook can take all the data that you submit and combine it with data from other users and outside information to construct a profile of you. Facebook uses nearly 100 different data points to classify your interests and activities.
This would include basic stuff like your age and gender, but also more complicated information like whether you own a motorcycle or you recently went on vacation.
Researchers have found that by using signals such as your likes and interactions, Facebook could tell if you were in a relationship or going through a breakup. Facebook doesn’t just know who you are. It also knows where you are.
Facebook Tracking – Location
If you have location tracking turned on, Facebook collects an enormous amount of location data about where you’re going, where you came from, where you live, where you work, what restaurants and businesses you tend to go to. And they use this information to target ads at you.
And location data could reveal other people who live in your house, even if you’re not connected to them on Facebook. Now obviously, Facebook knows what its users buy when they click on ads from Facebook.
Moreover, Facebook tracking your offline buying as well. Facebook also had a collab with data brokers that gather data about people’s purchases.
Facebook doesn’t just know who you are, where you are and what you buy. It also can be used to figure out what kinds of things you might do in the future.
To predict life outcomes, like whether you will be addicted to substances, whether you will switch political parties, whether you’re physically healthy or physically unhealthy. These are all part of the information that advertisers love to know because it helps them better target users.
So for example, if you buy a something or any product online with your credit card, Facebook could know about that transaction, match it with a credit card that you’ve added to Facebook or Facebook Messenger. Moreover, it starts showing you ads related to your online purchase.
People You May Know
One of the most controversial parts of Facebook data collection is a feature known as “People You May Know.” And this is where Facebook uses many different signals of what it knows about you to determine who else you might be connected to. And this is not always things that you share with Facebook.
It might be contacted in your phone. It might be people who have been in the same room as you. Facebook was using location data to recommend friends.
So it might have been recommending people who share a doctor with you or work in the same building. Facebook tracking can further be used to collect data about your political activity like protests or marches etc.
Facebook Login
From the Desktop, Go to your security settings
- Click the question mark in the upper right corner.
- Go down to privacy shortcuts now.
- Follow the list and customize every single thing you want to including, who can see your stuff, who can contact you and more.
- Now go back and choose privacy checkup and scroll down to apps to review the third-party apps you’ve used Facebook to log in to go ahead and edit.
- Delete any of them that you’re not using anymore number.
Manage ads you see on Facebook
After Facebook Login:
Right-click the arrow in the upper right-hand corner.
Then click ads on the left side menu. This takes you to your ad preferences where you can take control of your information and add settings.
So it’s now up to you, what pops into your feed as well as what you put out there from here on out now. Be sure to dust off you’re about Me section and get rid of all those old and potentially embarrassing photos to that.
The advice goes across all social media you know over time clutter builds up whether it’s outdated passwords dormant accounts.
Own awareness as to what you’re sharing and with whom guess. What social media doesn’t control you you control it and it’s time to take that control back. Over the past few weeks, Facebook alone has updated more than a dozen privacy and anti-abuse policies.
So many more of them and more of the changes rolling out. Plus tips and tricks to clean out clear up regain control over your social media world in the column.