Change these “Off-Facebook” Facebook Privacy Settings

Change these “Off-Facebook” Facebook (and Instagram) Privacy Settings

New Settings!

OK, perhaps not new. It’s been many years since I checked any social media regularly and I should really just delete my accounts, but like many, I leave them collecting dust…

But then, over the weekend I received a slew of recovery tokens for my Facebook account, which prompted me to head over to Settings to check activity and enable MFA. While there I noticed the new settings, buried deep as you’d expect.

I am genuinely ecstatic about these settings. Their defaults leave nearly everyone open to widespread invasion of privacy, but they still have the settings available. I suspect we have the ever increasing barrage of new consumer privacy oriented laws from cities and states (e.g. California Consumer Privacy Act) to country unions (GDPR).

Apply these in addition to standard privacy settings, as described well in Consumer Reports’ How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings. They also apply to connected Instagram accounts, but again, apply in addition to usual good hygiene, e.g. Consumer Reports’ How to Use Instagram Privacy Settings

Do You Give Facebook Permission to Collect Your Information Everywhere?

Under Off-Facebook Activity > … More Options > Manage Future Activity, the “Future Off-Facebook Activity” toggle is actually permission for Facebook to associate the masses of data they collects around the internet with your Facebook account. With this setting off, Facebook will still collect the data, but it won’t be associated with you, at least they seem to suggest not explicitly.

If you open ”Manage Your Off-Facebook Activity”, you will see most sites you visit on the internet, from all devices, including retailers and most other sites. You can clear all past data while you’re there. This data combined with the next feature allows Facebook to make money serving you ads everywhere for more of whatever you recently browsed, e.g. suddenly Jeep part ads everywhere after your purused Quadratec.

Do You Want Creepy Targeted Ads to Follow you Around the Internet??

Under Ad Preferences > Ads shown off of Facebook, the “feature”, on by default, highlights Facebook’s massive creepy reach. Not only do they collect your info from all across the internet, but they also serve you ads all across the internet.