The All Seeing Eyes: Facebook Monitors You Even When You Are Logged Out
The All Seeing Eyes: Facebook Monitors You Even When You Are Logged Out!
It is known that Facebook monitors users on its platforms i.e. Facebook itself, Whatsapp etc. According to new reports, Facebook continues to track its over 800 million users, monitoring what other websites they visit – even after they have logged off Facebook!
And that is not the limit of Facebook’s access, Facebook employees are capable of monitoring people who do not even have Facebook accounts as long as they have viewed the Facebook website once!
Talk about some deep spy craft!
The social networking company/platform monitors and collect loads of data that they claim are not used to promote advert delivery.
These uncurbed tracking and monitoring of both users of the social media platform and non-users is a privacy risk.
As an internet user without a Facebook account, you are not safe from Facebook prying monitoring. Simply clicking on a third party website that has a Facebook plugin attached i.e. the popular “share” and/or “like” widget, a record gets sent to Facebook database.
As earlier mentioned, the social networking site says the data is used for security boosting and improvement of their plugin quality and not for what most people think it is actually being used for: collect personal, private information to provide user specific ads.
Actually, the monitoring DOES help create efficient and more personalized advertising with the Tracking Web Activity allowing the social networking platform learn users preferences and tailor ads that they would most likely have interest in.
Now, over concerns as to what Facebook really knows. Well, they know a lot about you! They know your address, your phone number, your area code, your education, possibly your income, your spending habits, that nasty porn habit, that peculiar taste in wine, everything! The information are gathered through yourself and your friend’s internet activity analysis and these collected information will remain in the Facebook database forever regardless of if you delete your Facebook account.
So begs the question, how do you protect yourself from Facebook prying eyes?
There are various ways to curb or limit the dirt Facebook has on you. Below are some practices you should adopt:
Avoid posting too much personal detail and information online
Avoid posting photos of your kids, especially if they are too young to give their consent
Immediately log off Facebook as soon as you are done with the platform or alternatively make use of different browsers for different internet activities
Make use of ad blocking technology which a lot of browsers today has
Instead of installing the Facebook messenger app on your device, make use of the mobile website
Alternatively, you could also make privacy settings on your devices:
iOS devices: go to settings > confidentiality > Advertising > enable “Limit Ad tracking”
Android devices: go to settings > Google > Ads settings > turn off “Ads personalization”
Chrome Browsers (or any other browser): go to setting > advanced settings > privacy > enable “Do not track”.
These are ways to cloak your internet activities and your privacy from Facebook prying eyes.