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If you use Instagram, you should know that the platform performs web-tracking activities on you. These activities involve collecting your data from various third-party apps and websites that you visit. But Meta is now giving Instagram users the ability to control and even stop these tracking activities.
Users will be able to control this action from the Activities Off-Meta Technologies page. This page can be found in the Account Center on Instagram and Facebook for the mobile app or web platform. By giving users control of this web tracking activity, Meta is letting them determine how their data stored on various websites is used.
From the Activities Off-Meta Technologies page, users can disconnect specific or clear previous tracking activities stored on the platform. This will either stop Meta from tracking your web activities or clear whatever stored information it has on you. You might be already wondering why Meta is tracking your web activities and what it uses this data for.
Here’s why Meta collects user data with Instagram web-tracking on mobile and web platforms
If you are wondering why Meta tracks your web activities, it’s because it needs the data to serve your ads. As you already know, ads serve as a major source of revenue generation for companies like Google and Meta. However, the company understands that most users want their web activities to be kept private, hence the need to give users control over how Meta handles the collected data.
For those who aren’t comfortable with the collection of web tracking data on Meta’s Instagram, they can disable the tracking. These users can also review what websites share web data with Meta and what kind of data they share. With this information, users can then disable the sharing of specific web activities.
Users can also clear all data that these websites send to Meta, hence erasing them from existence. All of this can be done directly from the Activities Off-Meta Technologies page. To access this page, users need to go to the settings page and then click on Account Center.
Meta is also announcing the ability to download personal information from Facebook and Instagram together. Users can also transfer their photos and videos from Instagram to any other services. These new features are also accessible from the Account Center on the settings page.
However, it is not clear which service users will be able to transfer their photos and videos to. Meta is yet to give clear information on this and users will need to know to be able to use this new feature. These are all impressive features that are coming to Instagram users to help them improve their privacy.