True or false: Facebook can track your every move
I carry my phone everywhere I go, and the last thing I need is an app such as Facebook listening in on my private conversations. But is that really what’s going on? In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal — which compromised the personal info of up to 87 million people on Facebook — there’s a whole heap of confusion.
Let’s take a look at how Facebook tracks you — what’s true, what’s false — and what you can do about it.
Facebook spies via your phone mic
False: The other day I was talking about prom dress shopping with my daughter. The next time I checked Facebook, ads for frilly dresses showed up everywhere. Has this happened to you? It feels spooky for sure. But, according to Facebook, the fear of 24/7 microphone spying is all in your head.
“Facebook does not use your phone’s microphone to inform ads or to change what you see in News Feed,” spokesperson Joe Osborne said via email.
Facebook does, however, request access to your microphone — for posting videos or making calls using Facebook Messenger. If you don’t use either feature, it’s easy to keep it turned off through Facebook settings on your mobile device. On iPhone, go to Settings > Privacy > Microphone > Facebook (and you might as well do Messenger and Instagram while you’re there too.) On Android, go to Settings > Apps > Facebook > Permissions > Disable microphone.
Facebook tracks your location
True: Facebook tracks your location for several reasons, including so that you can “check in” to certain places. Facebook also uses your location to serve up ads. To turn off location tracking on a mobile app, (iOS and Android), go to Settings > Account Settings > Location and toggle “off.” While you’re there, disable location history, too.
Facebook sells your data to advertisers
False: Facebook makes the vast bulk of its money from ads, and by default, it uses your profile information — such as your interests, age, location, pages you’ve followed — to show you ads it thinks you’ll respond to and hopefully click on. Advertisers don’t get your specific personal information from the network, however, and Facebook has stressed that distinction.
“There is a very common misconception that we sell data to advertisers, and we do not sell data to advertisers,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, during his testimony last week. “What we allow is for advertisers to tell us who they want to reach, and then we do the placement.”
In late March, Facebook said it would end an arrangement that allowed advertisers to target Facebook users with in- formation gleaned from third-party data brokers, such as offline purchases or public records. Advertisers can still upload information they already have to aim ads at people on Facebook.
Facebook reads your text messages and listens to your calls
False: Facebook’s mobile app has a feature that lets you sync your texts and calls with Facebook Messenger. This is an opt-in feature, meaning you have to specifically give Facebook permission to do it, and it is only available on Android phones. If you have Facebook Messenger on an iPhone, you can still choose to sync your phone’s contact list with the app, but not calls and texts.
Facebook says it offers call-syncing so you can more easily find your friends and family on Messenger by pushing frequent callers to the top of your contact list. The fact that it tracks your call and text history is part of this functionality, but Facebook says it doesn’t listen to calls or read the content of any text messages you send. It does however, note the date, time, and who you were talking or texting with. And it automatically scans links and attached photos for malware and child sexual abuse.
In early April, Facebook said it plans to delete all logs older than a year and reduce the kind of information it takes from customers to offer this feature.
You can easily purge all of this information — even if you’ve already agreed to it. Under the Settings of the Messenger app, turn off “Continuous call and SMS Matching,” and Facebook says it will delete all previously stored data. You can also empty out your call logs and contacts on the Web using Facebook’s contact and call logs page.
Facebook can follow your every move on the Web
True: Facebook’s ad business depends on it knowing as much about your likes and dislikes as possible, and it gets some information from other websites you visit. A feature called Facebook Pixel can snoop on your browsing habits even when you’re not on Facebook, and it uses the data to paint a more accurate picture of who you are. The good news is you can control whether Facebook uses the data it gathers to target you with specific ads. Go into your Facebook profile, click Settings > Ads > Ad Settings and you can turn off “interest-based ads” under the ad settings section.