Last week, I told you about how websites and apps are spying on you for Facebook, sending the social media giant detailed information about your online activities. This includes sites where you shop, government websites, and apps on your phone. It turns out 1300 apps and sites have shared my activity with Facebook.
The sites and apps may not even be aware they’re tracking you. That’s because the data sharing happens when sites use Facebook Business Tools. If they haven’t checked the fine print or are using a company to host their site that uses them, they may not be aware of the extent of the information that’s been gathered. I showed you how to find this information and remove it from a browser. Today, I’ll show you how to find out what information has been shared with Facebook from your phone. Start by opening the Facebook app and clicking the three-line menu bar at the top right.
Then tap Settings & Privacy followed by Settings.
Scroll down to Off-Facebook Activity. Tap it and enter the password to your account.
You’ll see the logos for a few of the sites and apps that have shared your information. Click on Manage Your Off-Facebook Activity to see the full list.
Here’s my list. Close to 1300 sites including everything from my pedometer app to news sites to government sites like the VA and educational institutions. The number next to the site or app shows how many times they shared your data with Facebook. You can tap the Clear History button from here, but that won’t stop the future collection of data.
Tap on any of the sites or apps to see more details about what they’ve shared about you with Facebook.
To prevent the future sharing of your data, scroll down and tap on Turn off future activity from the site or app.
