This post was formerly titled Groundhog Day – Posted Feb 2, 2021
It seems like we’re always hammering on Facebook about their data privacy challenges and sometimes it must feel like we’re stuck in that 1993 movie – Groundhog Day. Rest assured this has nothing to do with today being Groundhog Day and I’m certainly not Bill Murray. Let’s talk about off-Facebook activity.

I’m always amazed by how often I get targeted marketing while I’m on the web. Facebook has an awful lot to do with the targeted ads I see and after digging deeper into Facebook’s off-Facebook activity, I realize why.

Facebook not only uses information from your activity on Facebook and its related products like Instagram to target you with ads, but the company also relies on data from third-party websites to do this.

When you visit a website or use an app, these businesses or organizations can share information about your activity with them by using Facebook’s business tools. They use this activity to personalize your experience, such as showing you relevant ads. They also require that businesses and organizations provide notice to people before using their business tools.

Examples of interactions include:

  • Opened an app
  • Logged into app with Facebook
  • Visited a website
  • Searched for an item
  • Added an item to a wishlist
  • Added an item to a cart
  • Made a purchase
  • Made a donation

Businesses and organizations can also send custom interactions that meet certain needs. For example, they may use a custom interaction to create a unique group of customers in order to show them relevant ads.

Facebook has a fairly new tool that lets users see exactly which third-party apps and websites share their data with Facebook. I found that my Facebook account had a list of 1,177 apps and websites that have shared my activity.

The tool also includes a toggle to turn this off.

To access the feature:

  • Tap the down-facing arrow at the top right corner of Facebook.com and click on Settings. If you’re on mobile, tap the three-line icon at the bottom-right corner of the Facebook app, scroll down and tap “Settings & Privacy” and tap on “Settings.”
  • Click the “Your Facebook Information” heading. On desktop, it’s in the left column near the top.
  • Select “Off-Facebook Activity” heading in the middle of the page.

Next, click on “Manage Your Off-Facebook Activity.” This will prompt you to enter your Facebook password.

From the “Manage Your Off-Facebook Activity” page, you can delete the third-party websites that have shared with Facebook by simply tapping on the large “Clear History” button at the top of the screen.

  • But this will do little to stop the apps from sharing information with Facebook going forward. They’ll still receive activity from the third-party site.It may be used for measurement purposes and to make improvements to Facebook’s ads systems, but it will be disconnected from your account.
  • You may still see ads from the third-party..Your ad preferences and actions you take on Facebook will be used to show you relevant ads.

To prevent future data sharing, you can either turn everything off or you can turn off data sharing app by app.

If you want to be selective about which apps you prevent, simply click an app that you want off, scroll down and select “Turn off future activity.” Repeat this for each website that you want to turn off.

To turn off future data sharing in bulk, click on “Manage Future Activity,” which will prompt a pop up where you should click “Manage Future Activity.” This will take you to another page where you can switch a toggle for “Future Off-Facebook Activity.”

This will turn off everything. It will also log you out of any apps for which you use your Facebook activity to sign in, which could include popular services like Spotify, Venmo and Airbnb. If you do turn everything off (like I did) you’ll not be able to use Facebook to log into these services or apps unless you turn them back on.

If you ever need to turn a service back on, head to the “Manage Future Activity” page and then tap on “Activity You’ve Turned Off.” There you will see apps you’ve turned off. If you click them, you will see an option to allow activity from that website to reconnect with your Facebook account.

BONUS!  We created this walk-thru to see which third-party apps and websites share your data with Facebook for our February appearance on “So What About That Law?” with Attorney Mark Greene – Download HERE