Stop Facebook From Spying on You With the New Firefox Extension

You can’t stop Facebook from tracking everything you do on the social network (unless, of course, you delete your account ), but there is a way to prevent it from tracking where you go when you leave the company’s walled garden . All you need is Mozilla’s new Firefox browser extension: Facebook Container .

The Facebook container limits Facebook to its own isolated browser tab, so it can’t see everything else you do online. This means that Facebook will not know what you are buying on Amazon, even if you land on Amazon thanks to a link posted on Facebook. The extension also blocks access to other sites with your Facebook credentials – another important way the company collects data from all over the Internet.

Installing a new Mozilla extension is easy. Just download and install the new extension . Once it becomes active, it will automatically log you out of Facebook. The next time you log into a social network, you will see that the Facebook tab in your browser is highlighted in blue.

Facebook will work just like it always did, but clicking any link to a site outside of the social network will load a new tab outside of the container so Facebook doesn’t track where you go.

If you use the Facebook Share button on another website, this action is loaded into the Facebook Container tab, so what you are sharing will be returned to Facebook. The extension may also block you from logging into other sites through your Facebook account, and built-in Facebook features, including the Like button and comment sections on some other sites, may also not work.

This may be a little annoying at first, but it’s a small price to pay for the added privacy. If you see the rest of the Internet lacking Facebook influence, it will also remind you of how a company’s power goes beyond its own platform.

More…

Leave a Reply