How to Opt Out Of Interest-Based Advertising From Facebook

This past week you may have received a notification from Facebook alerting you that the company is "making ads better and giving you more control". This is part of Facebook's plan to start pushing more targeted ads to your news feed based on your browsing habits. Even though Facebook is allowing users to add and remove certain ads from their news feed, some people do not like the idea of the company tracking their web surfing history.

UPDATE: Facebook has informed us they will "not share browsing history with advertisers and won’t do so even with these new changes. Facebook will include info from website and apps to inform targeting on Facebook. But no information is shared with advertisers."

Here's how to limit targeted ads on your iOS device and Facebook news feed:

On your iPhone navigate to Settings > Privacy > Advertising and tap the "Limit Ad Tracking" slider so it turns green.

On your Mac or PC you can use the standard Digital Advertising Alliance form to opt out of receiving interest-based advertising from participating companies.

The DAA page gives you a list of websites, such as Google, who customize ads for your browser. Just click the "Companies Customizing Ads for Your Browser" tab to see the list of company's sending you interest-based ads, then check off the box(es) next to the company's name(s) (or hit the "Select All Shown" button) and finally click the "Submit your choices" button to submit the form. You will have to do this individually for every laptop and computer you use to access Facebook.

You can also click on any company's name to find out more about their individual advertising and privacy practices.

Android users can "Opt out of interest-based ads" in the Google Settings on any of their devices.

To stop receiving ads from a certain advertisers on the Facebook app, just click the down arrow next to "Suggested Post" and tap the "I don't want to see this" tab.

NOTE: Opting out of the Facebook's targeted ads will not remove ads from your news feed.