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Facebook (the company) recently changed its name to Meta, which came with a slick(ish) presentation and all the usual fanfare.

There is a slight legal issue with the naming, but I’m sure Mark Zuckerberg will throw enough money at the problem to make it go away.

Facebook (the social media site) remains as is – a terrible hellscape that has failed to protect its users, as well as democracy, all in the pursuit of profit.

But you knew that already.

You won’t be able to change Facebook policy from the top down, but you can change how Facebook tracks you as you peruse the internet.

CNET with the basics:

If you haven’t been using the Off-Facebook Activity privacy feature, now’s the time to start. The tool, introduced by Facebook in 2019, lets you see and control data that apps and websites share with the platform — and monitor the kind of information third-party apps can access.

With the privacy feature, you can clear the history of apps and websites that have shared your data. You can also turn off future Off-Facebook activity, which tells Facebook to disconnect any information the company has shared from your account. Or you can selectively choose which companies you want to stop sharing your activity, and it’ll stop showing those targeted ads.

In case you need a reminder of why Facebook knowing so much about you is far from ideal, revisit The Social Dilemma.

To get straight to the instructions on how to stop the tracking on mobile, skip ahead to the 2:25 mark below.

You’ll then get a simple step-by-step guide.

For the desktop guide, skip ahead to the 4:10 mark.

[source:cnet]