Cookies are one mechanism by which websites can track your activity,
but this is only one of the methods that Facebook has to track your
activity on the internet. Facebook can track your activity even if
you have no Facebook account and have never even logged into Facebook.
Facebook is owner of several web products, such as Instagram and Whatsapp,
but not only. All of them feed your data into its centralized database.
It has also got agreements with many websites and companies
to furnish it with data about their customers, which includes login-name
and activity, IP address and more. With this data, Facebook can very
well identify you almost always and everywhere and build for you a very
detailed profile.
Every website that offers you to login via a Facebook account,
or that has the Facebook logo on its page, or shows a Facebook
advertisement will likely be tracking you and reporting your data
to Facebook.
You may stop some of the web activity being used to target you with ads
by visiting the
YourAdChoices site
run by the Digital Advertising Alliance.
Facebook advertising targeting is on the list of entries, so tick the
Opt Out box for that. You'll need to do this separately for each
browser you use; for a clean sweep, you should opt out of all the
other platforms as well.
You can't really stop Facebook from collecting this information -
it's the deal you make when you sign up - but you can limit how it
affects the advertising you see by visiting the ad preferences page
of your account.
The Ad settings page has more options, such as whether Facebook can use
data from its marketing partners (there are an awful lot of them)
to put more relevant advertising in front of you.
Note that all this won't stop Facebook from compiling your personal
profile, only limit its usage of your data (if you believe Facebook).
Some references :
Please note that there is no sure way of avoiding all the tracking methods
used by Facebook and its partners. See also:
