If, like most people these days, you have a Facebook account, the company is collecting data about you.

In fact, even if you’re one of the people who participated in the mass exit a while back, and you deleted your account, it’s still collecting data about you.

Sorry to tell you this, but it looks like leaving Facebook is harder than leaving a cult.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to stop them from collecting this data. I have a theory that personal data is to (real human person and definitely not a robot) Mark Zuckerberg what blood is to a vampire.

You can, however, control how it uses it.

Per WIRED:

How hard you want to pull back depends to a certain extent on how much you trust Facebook. The social network behemoth says it uses your data to show relevant ads and keep you safe; if someone signs into your account from a country you’re not usually in, for instance, Facebook can flag the activity as suspicious.

However, this is not a company with a good track record when it comes to looking after your data. Irrespective of how Facebook itself has used your information, it’s certainly been careless in the ways that information has been shared with third parties.

You’ll want to watch the doccie about the Facebook / Cambridge Analytica scandal to really get a feel for how careless the social media platform has been.

If you want to control your data, here are three ways that Facebook tracks you and how to limit it:

On The Web

When you signed up for Facebook you gave it permission to access your personal information and that includes which groups or events you click on and the pages you follow.

How To Limit It

You can’t really stop Facebook from collecting this information, but you can limit how it affects the advertising that you see. Visit the ‘Ad Preferences’ page in your account. Open up ‘Your Interests’ to get an idea of what Facebook thinks you’re into. It might have assumed things that aren’t true.

Go to ‘Ad Settings’ and make some changes to what is ‘Allowed’ and ‘Not Allowed’ by selecting those options. You can also hit up the ‘Your Information Tab’ to find out exactly how and why Facebook is targeting you with specific content (relationship status, job title, etc).

Marketing Firms And Ad Networks

Facebook isn’t only tracking you on Facebook, because it also partners with a wide range of marketing firms and ad networks. This means that activities on other sites, including but limited to PornHub (not a joke), are being recorded.

How To Limit It

When this info came to light, people were naturally quite upset about it, so Facebook introduced ‘Off-Facebook Activity‘ which will supposedly disconnect this data from what you actually do on Facebook.

It’s a comprehensive solution, but still not widely available.

On Mobile Devices

Much of what we’ve said about how Facebook tracks you on the web applies to the mobile app as well, with a few additional ways to collect information. The app allows Facebook to track which mobile Wi-Fi networks you’re connecting to, the type of phone that you have, and the other apps that you’ve installed.

How To Limit It

The easiest way to limit tracking is not to install the mobile app at all. If you insist on having the app, you can go to ‘Apps and Notifications’, and then block Facebook from accessing your phone’s location, contacts, microphone, and camera.

Unfortunately, even with location tracking turned off, the company can still make note of the location where you access the web via your IP address.

While it’s impossible to completely stop the company from tracking you, there are ways to ensure that you’re using the platform with maximum privacy.

Considering the company’s past, you might want to get on that.

[source:wired]