Tech expert reveals hidden ways Facebook and Instagram collect your data… and how to stop it

A technology expert has revealed exactly how Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg’s Instagram collect your data.

The Meta Platforms collect information about a user’s activity within the apps and websites, such as pages visited, content liked and locations, and store it in the Facebook setting.

Melanie Joy shared the solution in a TikTok video and told yousers to select ‘View more in Account Center’, then click ‘Your information & permissions’.

Users will proceed to ‘Disable your activity metatechnologies’, then ‘Clear previous activity’ and finally ‘Manage future activity’ to ‘disable’ it.

Another option follows the first two steps, but suggests selecting ‘Ad Preferences’ and then ‘Ad Partner Activity Information’, which will allow you to view the settings and exit them completely.

Joy shared the solution in a TikTok video where people were happy to hear they could stop data collection.

‘Former Meta employee here. Thank you,” reads one response.

Melanie Joy, known as @soundsbymojo, said she posted the tutorial video in response to the recent Meta policy changes that coincided with the results of the 2024 presidential election

The video has been saved more than 50,000 times and received more than 3,000 comments.

“I did it last night. Shocked by the number of companies listed,” one TikToker commented.

Users will still see ads on Facebook and Instagram, “but the ads may be less personalized.” And it can take up to 48 hours for the changes you made to be visible.

Melanie Joy, known as @soundsbymojo, said she posted the instructional video in response to the recent Meta policy changes that coincided with the results of the 2024 presidential election.

The Zuckerberg-owned company is facing a huge backlash from users after announcing it would shut down its fact-checking program, which was implemented in December 2016.

In a recent videoMeta’s founder said the new policy aims to move the country in the right direction and increase the right to ‘freedom of expression’.

The fact-checking program was initially intended to combat the spread of misinformation that allegedly contributed to the 2016 election.

Now that the program is shutting down, the 3,600 employees who worked on it will also quit.

Zuckerberg said third-party moderators were too “politically biased” because he opted for a system that will work like X, which has “community notes.”

The Zuckerberg-owned company is facing a huge backlash from users after announcing it would shut down its fact-checking program, which was implemented in December 2016

The Zuckerberg-owned company is facing a huge backlash from users after announcing it would shut down its fact-checking program, which was implemented in December 2016

Last week, Zuckerberg said: “We’re going back to our roots… and restoring free speech on our platforms. First, we’re going to remove fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X.

“It means we’ll intercept less bad stuff, but we’ll also reduce the number of innocent people’s messages and accounts we accidentally delete.

“The fact-checkers have been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they have created, especially in the US.”

President-elect Trump was previously highly critical of what was claimed to be Meta’s anti-conservative bias.