How to STOP Your Phone From Sharing Your Web Info With Facebook

You can also block other apps from sharing such info

Recently, I told you how to stop Facebook from having outside websites report your activities to it, so that Facebook could use them to target ads to you.

Perhaps turning off sharing within the Facebook app (or web page) as I described is enough to preserve your privacy and reduce how much money Facebook makes from you.

But based on my own experience reporting on Facebook over the past 15 years, I personally do not totally trust Facebook to keep its word about virtually anything.

Fortunately, if you use a phone or tablet, there’s still more you can do to make doubly sure that Facebook (or any other nosy app) doesn’t get hold of your outside activities.

How much does Facebook make from targeting ads to you?

On average, Meta (Facebook’s and Instagram’s parent) earned $68.44 per user in the U.S. and Canada in 2023. About 98 percent—an estimated total of $119 billion—was from advertising. (Per user revenues from Europe and Asia are lower.)

That’s a lot of money. Nevertheless, telling your phone or tablet to cut off the flow of info about your outside activities can help you do your share by putting a small dent in it, while protecting your privacy.

Instructions to lock down your information vary between Apple devices (iPhone and iPad) and Android-based phones and tablets, as well as among different versions of iPhone’s operating systems and Android.

The following instructions are based on the best information I’ve been able to obtain, but you may need to improvise a little to find the exact sequence of buttons to tap in your particular case.

Apple iPhone and iPad

NOTE: You must have a version of iOS 14.5 or iPadOS 14.5 or later.

Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking to bring up a screen like the one shown below. It will list the current settings for apps that have previously requested permission to track you. For each specific app, including Facebook if listed, tap to turn off or turn on permission to track.

If you want to prevent all new apps (including any new versions of Facebook or Instagram) from tracking in the future, tap the top item, Allow Apps to Request to Track, to turn it off (the little circle should move to the left)

It’s a matter of personal preference whether you want to block all apps from doing so or just certain apps. Note that Apple has its own targeted advertising system, separate from third-party tracking. To disable it, navigate to Settings > Privacy > Apple Advertising

Android-based Phone and Tablet

NOTE: You need a version of Android 12 or later.

Since more than one manufacturer makes Android phones and tablets, the exact instructions for turning off tracking on your device might vary from the following. Unfortunately, I’m unable to try this out on all devices and Android versions.

Android devices use something called an advertising ID to enable apps to track you. To prevent tracking, you must delete this advertising ID.

Open the Settings app and navigate to Privacy > Ads to bring up a screen like the one shown below. (In newer Android versions you may need to navigate to Security and privacy > More privacy settings > Ads )

Tap “Delete advertising ID” on the page below (shown on the left.) Then tap it again on the next page (shown on the right) to confirm. This will prevent all apps on your phone or tablet from accessing an ID in the future. If you ever change your mind, you can use Reset advertising ID as shown below (on the left) to turn tracking back on.

I’ll be reporting more information on how Facebook’s business model works, why it values advertisers (who are, unlike you and me, its real customers), and offer a few more tips for those of you who want to go even further to reduce how much money Facebook makes from you.

In the long run, to stop putting money in Mark Zuckerberg’s wallet, those of us who want to continue using social networks will need replacements for Facebook and Instagram. I just wrote about an exciting new project to develop them. Take a read.