If you use Instagram/Facebook/Messenger, check the "off Meta technologies" section. Your other apps may be sending data without you knowing

Even if you don't enter data into Facebook/Meta directly, they may be getting data from other games/music apps/etc.

How to check

Navigate to the Accounts Center menu.
- Instagram: open your profile page > 3 bar menu > Settings > Accounts Center
- Messenger: 3 bar menu > gear icon > scroll to bottom > Accounts Center
Your information and permissions
Your activity off Meta technologies

There should also be an option for Manage future activity

I use some apps to communicate with family, and clearly my privacy protections weren't as good as I thought they were. I set things up a long time ago, so I imagine something changed since then.

I'm considering of either sending the apps to the work profile, or switching to only using them in the browser. If it's because I connected my account to the other service at some point, I don't know how to sever that connection now aside from dropping that other game/app/service

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Or just stop using Meta services all together.
- Ok, let me just cut off my entire family and friend circle out of my life just to stick it to some corpo that doesn't even care about me. I sure showed 'em!
  
  I mean god forbid using regular text and phone with them is out of the question.
- That's probably what everyone using Lemmy would prefer to do, but some people believe it would negatively impact their ability to stay in touch with friends or family.
- When everybody uses WhatsApp to communicate, which is a meta service, it's a bit complicated to cut off communication with literally everybody in your country (work, friends, businesses) just to not use a service. It's disingenuous to expect this without some sort of change within the current status quo. And this is coming from someone who doesn't use any of their other platforms but has to use WhatsApp, because that's literally the only choice
  
  I'm glad Meta seems to be keeping most of the junk they have on Insta/FB away from WhatsApp*
  ^*so ^far
- and all the things you find on this list, too
Direct link to the page in question
https://accountscenter.facebook.com/info_and_permissions/off_facebook_activity/
- Thanks :)
  
  And thank you, I wasn't aware of that option :)
- And, of course, they want you to login or sign up to be able to read that page.
  
  It physically hurts me to say anything in facebook’s defence, but to be fair this is an account centre link to an account config page
Thank you for the tip, but is there any way to delete the activity data from Meta after de-linking?
- I cleared it before I had a chance to look through properly. There should be a menu option when you look at the list
- if I recall correctly, there is a separate link in the same settings area for deleting any data stored from off-site partners.
- there isn't, but as others have replied you can hide it from yourself
Sneaky, thanks for raising this.
darn. hidden in such a place!
and I couldn't believe what I found in there. Apparently MongoDB, which I use only for my work, linked me with my facebook account. This is crazy.
Just opted out myself but there was a print saying that they will collect all that data anyway but it will be disconnected from our account. Like wtf is that even supposed to mean?
Some examples from mine if anyone is curious. I never use the fb sso or any of that shit, nor did I ever explicitly consent to any of these services sharing anything with fb.
Spotify
bookings .com
ebay (haven't touched my account there in over a decade but they still had data to send this year)
windy .com
duolingo
tinder
my bank
opera
sonos (I can't think of any time I've ever even interacted with this one)
samsung wallet (another one I never even set up)
Uber eats
calorie counter
mediacom usa and euro (?)
Also, if you remove access via messenger app, it will show a confirm message without closing the screen. Clicking x goes back and it's not on the list anymore. Whether they are actually leaving it disconnected or just hiding it, who knows.
Some of these services I didn't use the same email that I used for fb, too, or any email at all.
- Thank you! This answers most of my questions
  The ones you never set up, did you ever interact with them in any way? Or did they mistakenly mix your data with someone else's (which might even be a good thing tbh)
  
  Most of them were cases where I wasn't surprised they had data but a bit surprised they shared it.
  I think my phone came with a sonos app installed, though not certain about that. I got rid of it if it was, though I can't say if the most recent update from them was before or after that.
  But a few of them I'm not really sure why they are on there. There was another one that I didn't list that just had the label "IDK", not sure if that's a real name or "I don't know". I'm assuming they came from effective fingerprinting/tracking.
  I might look into an addon that fakes some of the information the browser sends like OS version and resolution. Maybe that will make fingerprinting harder.
Oooh, thank you!
I wish I could stop using Facebook entirely but the only family I allow in my life refuses to leave. And trust me, I have asked for us to switch. Every time I send SMS it doesn't get seen and she tells me to use messenger. 🙃
- That was what I thought five years ago. I was on the verge of removing it, and the android Facebook app killed my phone's battery, so delete it went.
  And suddenly all my family drama stopped and if someone needs to get in touch with me, how surprising that they still found a way.
- Convince them to use Signal, by far the best, end-to-end encrypted messaging app
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9Ux8DFgMSM
Whoah, thanks for that. I rarely use fb and while I knew that they collected and connected information anywhere they could, but I had only ever seen the main fb settings and turned those off as much as possible.
This is wild.
Linking my first post on Lemmy regarding Meta Services having a service on your phone. Worth checking out.
- Thank you! That was helpful to know
Mine was empty but enabled. Weird.
Is this also on WhatsApp? I got all the other Meta junk off my phone except that, since I need it for some family abroad
- I think it is since it was a similar interface across the 2 I checked, but I don't have WhatsApp installed to check that one
Thanks for the tip. I'll definitely will do it myself. I do wonder if this is like the crosswalk button that only give pedestrians the illusion of changing the light

49 comments