How to stop Facebook and other sites tracking you

It’s no secret that when it comes to Facebook, the users are the product. The platform collects huge amounts of data about individuals and businesses, turning its giant database into a money-making machine. Facebook earns over $100 billion per year in advertising revenue, and that all comes down to tracking user activity, device info, location, and data it receives from third-party websites and apps. In this post, I explain more about how and why Meta tracks you around the web and show you how to stop Facebook and other sites from tracking you.

How does Facebook track you?

Facebook collects information about your activity on its platform and across other websites and apps. It can get this info directly from your activity, from the permissions you grant to its apps, and from businesses that use Meta’s tracking and advertising tools.

Some of the information Meta can collect includes:

• Your activity: Posts you interact with, searches, pages you visit, videos you watch, games you play, and other activity on Facebook and Instagram.
• Device information: Your device type, operating system, IP address, browser, mobile network, and other technical information.
• Location data: Your device’s location, depending on the permissions you grant, along with location information inferred from things such as your IP address.
• Contacts and messages: Information from phone contacts and other communication-related data when you give Meta the relevant permissions.
• Photos, videos, and files: Any content you upload or allow Meta’s apps to access.
• Activity on other websites and apps: Information about your activity on websites and apps that share data with Meta through tools such as the Meta Pixel and other Meta Business Tools; this can be used for advertising and analytics.
• You don’t even need a Facebook account to be tracked. Services that use Meta Pixel, Facebook Login, or social plugins can send information about your activity to Meta, even when you’re not logged in to Facebook.

How to stop Facebook from tracking you

There is hope though, Facebook’s own privacy settings include controls for your search history, off-site activity, and cookies. Meanwhile, you can adjust its app permissions through your device settings or disable/delete your advertising ID. Finally, using an anti-tracking extension lets you block the Meta Pixel and other browser-based snoopers.

Work your way through each of the main ways Facebook tracks you below, and implement each anti-tracking solution we’ve mentioned to protect yourself as much as possible.

Clear your Facebook search history

Facebook keeps track of what you search for, which can reveal your interests, be used for ad personalization, or spoil a surprise if someone else uses your device.

Here’s how to clear your search history and set it to auto-clear as frequently as Facebook will allow:

1. Head to the Facebook Accounts Center and log in if you haven’t already. We’ll be changing several settings here, so keep the Accounts Center open until we’ve gone through them all.
2. Click on Your information and permissions on the left-side menu.
3. Next, click Search history.
4. Press Clear all searches.
5. Select All time, then click Clear all searches again.
6. Back at the Search history prompt, click Keep searches for and pick the lowest option available.
7. Click Confirm, and you’re done!

Keep in mind that clearing your searches doesn’t necessarily mean Facebook immediately stops using them. Meta says it may retain and use this information to “personalize your experience” for up to 90 days.

Limit tracking from other websites and apps

The steps below let you clear activity that other websites and apps have shared with Meta and limit future tracking:

1. In the Facebook Accounts Center, click Your information and permissions.
2. Select Your activity off Meta technologies. Depending on your location, this setting may already be called Activity from other businesses, as Meta announced it will merge the two in 2026.
3. Here you can check and clear your activity, or disconnect specific activities if you prefer keeping some stuff linked to Facebook.
4. In this case, we want a clean slate and to stop Facebook from tracking you in the future, so click Clear previous activity, then Clear.
5. Return to the previous menu by clicking the little arrow at the top left, then click Manage future activity.
6. Select Disconnect future activity, then press Continue.
7. Click Disconnect future activity again to finish. As the prompt says, it may take 48 hours for your changes to apply.
8. Go back to Your information and permissions > App connections to review and log out of any services you’ve connected to Facebook (such as third-party apps for scheduling Instagram posts, connecting fitness trackers, or automating admin tasks).

Stop Facebook cookies from tracking you

Facebook uses cookies to track your activity and remember information about you, including when you visit other websites and apps. You can limit some of this tracking through Facebook’s cookie settings:

1. Back at the Accounts Center, go to Your information and permissions
2. Next, click Manage cookies.
3. Scroll down and toggle off Optional cookies and Cookies from other companies. The latter may already be turned off depending on your location.

Check out our in-depth guide on how to stop cookies from tracking you for more ways to limit tracking from other services.

Turn off Facebook location tracking and other permissions

Facebook can use your location for things like personalized content, ads, and location-based features. Depending on what you allow, the app can also access other info on your device, such as your contacts, camera, and microphone.

Here’s how to turn off Facebook location tracking and manage your permissions.

On Android:

1. Go to Settings > Apps, then scroll down and tap Facebook.
2. Next, select Permissions.
3. Here you can tap on Location or other features you want to limit, then tap Don’t allow.

On iOS and iPadOS:

1. Head over to Settings > Privacy & Security.
2. Choose a category, such as Location Services, Camera, Microphone, etc.
3. Find Facebook on the list of apps and toggle off its access.

Delete or limit access to your advertising ID

Your advertising ID is a device-level identifier that apps can use for ads and analytics.

Here’s how to delete it or limit access so Meta can’t use it for tracking:

• Windows 11: Go to Settings > Privacy & security > Recommendations & offers and toggle off Advertising ID.
• Android: Navigate to Settings > Privacy > Ads (or just search for “Ads”) and tap Delete advertising ID, then again on the next page for confirmation.
• macOS: Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising and toggle off Personalized ads.
• iOS and iPadOS: Open Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking and turn off Allow Apps to Request to Track. This prevents apps like Facebook from requesting permission to use Apple’s advertising identifier for tracking.

Use an anti-tracking extension

Anti-tracking extensions can block Facebook’s tracking requests when you visit other websites, making it harder for Meta to collect data about what you do around the web. Some great options include:

• uBlock Origin: Usable on Firefox (and its forks, also on Android), Brave (desktop), and has limited Chromium support through uBO Lite.
• Ghostery: Supported on Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, Brave, and Edge. Android users can install the extension on Edge and Firefox. Also works on Tor Browser, though it’s not officially supported, so you may run into issues.
• Privacy Badger: Made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Works on Chrome, Opera, Brave, as well as Firefox, Edge, and their Android counterparts.

These extensions can also block ads, but Facebook is pretty good at getting around ad blockers, so don’t count on them to hide every sponsored post. In fact, Facebook’s ads and countermeasures got so egregious that uBlock Origin’s maintainers said they would no longer support the platform. It can still block things like the Meta Pixel on various websites, as seen below.

How to stop Facebook tracking: FAQs