You Can Stop Instagram From Tracking You on Other Sites and Apps

Using the Internet without being monitored is difficult, but it is possible. Companies are starting to give us tools to help, like Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature and DuckDuckGo’s App Tracking Protection . Even Meta, a company that makes money from data collection, now offers you a way to control how Instagram tracks your activity across sites and apps.

In Tuesday’s announcement, Meta introduced new ways for users to manage their data and information across Meta products. For example, “Download your information” and “Access your information” are now available in the Account Center on both Facebook and Instagram, so you can download your data from either platform or both from that location. There’s also a new feature for transferring your information to other platforms.

However, I want to highlight here the new option “Activity outside of metatechnologies”. But first, a little background: When you leave Instagram to browse other sites and use other apps, the companies that operate those platforms collect your data. Sometimes they send this data to Meta and this data can be linked back to your Instagram profile. This is how these services track you to better serve you ads – the ultimate goal of making money online.

The new Activity Off-Meta Technology setting allows you to control the data other companies send to Meta. This option used to be called “off-Facebook activity” and it worked much the same way, only for data connected to your Facebook account. Now Meta is bringing Instagram into this setup, hence the “Meta” in the name.

You’ll find these new options as soon as they appear on your account in the Account Center in Instagram’s settings. Here you will be able to view any recent activity associated with your account, disable certain activities, clear previous activity, and manage future activity. As long as Meta makes money from advertising and data collection, it won’t be privacy. first company. But it’s important to use tools like this whenever possible so you can reclaim some of the personal information we’ve all given away in the digital age.