Facebook will now start be using your Web-browsing data to target you with advertising. All this will be done thanks to Like and Share buttons placed on websites and apps that collect data about things you’re reading, watching, and interested in. The company announced it would use this data collected off Facebook in personalized ads last year, and on Tuesday, said it is beginning to use it more broadly. However Facebook has also given a way for users to opt out of this targeted advertisements. “Today, we’re introducing an additional way for people to turn off this kind of advertising from the ad settings page right on Facebook,” wrote Stephen Deadman, Facebook’s global deputy chief privacy officer. “We are continuing to roll out online interest-based advertising,” Deadman wrote, “and will now begin including information from pages that use Facebook’s Like button and similar social features, as we announced last year.” Earlier, FB users could block the ads through the Digital Advertising Alliance’s AdChoices program, or through settings on Android and iOS phones. Now they can do it through Facebook. If you prefer Facebook doesn’t use all the data it knows about you from Like buttons and other social features that exist off Facebook, you can modify that in your ad settings. Go to Settings in Facebook. Click on Ads. You can opt out of behavior-based ads under “Ads based on my use of websites and apps.” If you’ve previously opted out of Facebook’s ad targeting through the Digital Advertising Alliance, which lets you remove yourself from behavioral ad tracking from a number of online companies, you’ll see your settings say “No” in the settings page. As the Digital Advertising Alliance system was based on cookies, it required you to opt out of ads on individual devices. Now however, Facebook makes it easy for you to directly disable the ads from the settings panel. Facebook In the drop-down box, click “Off,” and it will prevent Facebook from using your Web-browsing data to serve up ads. Facebook Remember you can only stop Facebook from serving ads to you. However that does not mean that Facebook wont collect your personal surfing habits and browsing history in the first place.
