If you use Facebook or Instagram app, you must have seen an advertisement of an online shopping website while scrolling. Often these advertisements are the same ones that you search on Amazon, Flipkart or other e-commerce websites. In such a situation, the question arises that how does the data of your online shopping reach Facebook or Instagram. This also increases concerns about privacy. Here we will tell you with which websites Meta shares data and how it can be stopped.
Meta has provided a feature called Your activity off Meta technologies, which shows user activity outside Facebook and Instagram. When you view a product on an e-commerce site or use an app, many businesses share this data with Meta. This helps Meta understand your likes and interests. Then on that basis you see advertisements and suggestions. The company says that this system is meant to improve ad personalization and experience, but users have also been given complete control over it.
Go to Settings & Privacy by going to the Facebook user profile icon, then open Settings. There in the Accounts Center you will find Your information and permissions section. Inside this, the option of Your activity off meta technologies will be visible. Instagram users can also open the same section by going to Settings and then Accounts Center from the profile icon. Here a list of apps and websites that have recently shared data appears. This makes it clear which platforms are sending your activity to Meta.
Under the Off Meta Activity section, users get many options for data control. If you want, you can disconnect any one business or app separately, so that it cannot share data further. Multiple sources can also be removed simultaneously. Meta also gives the option to clear all old activities. The data already associated with this gets removed from the account. However, Meta states that some information may remain in the system in agreement or unknown form.
Meta also gives users the option to stop future tracking completely. When you turn on the setting, external websites and apps will not be able to automatically share with the new activity meta. This may make ads less personalized, but increases privacy control. Users can also download their Off meta data through the Export your information feature. This file can be saved on the local system or on cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox. All data is available in a managed manner in the Downloads folder, making it easy to understand what information has been shared over time.
