Every Way Meta Tracks You, and How to Stop It [video]
This video explains the various methods Meta uses to track users across its platforms (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) and the web, including pixel tracking, social plugins, and data sharing. It also provides practical steps to limit this tracking, such as adjusting privacy settings, using browser extensions, and alternative services.
Background
- Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads) runs one of the world's largest digital advertising systems. Its business model depends on collecting vast amounts of user data to target ads.
- The video is by Naomi Brockwell (NBTV), a privacy-focused tech journalist who regularly explains surveillance, cryptography, and digital rights to a general audience.
- Even if you never click a Meta ad, Meta builds a "shadow profile" about you from data bought from data brokers, tracked via its "Meta Pixel" (a snippet of code embedded in millions of third-party websites), and gathered from your device's activity even when you're not using Meta apps.
- Recent regulatory changes (EU's DMA, Apple's App Tracking Transparency) have forced Meta to offer some opt-outs, but the company uses tactics like "pay or consent" models and dark patterns to minimize the impact on its data collection.
- The video walks through specific settings on Facebook, Instagram, and your phone's OS-level ad identifiers, plus browser extensions and DNS filtering, to reduce — though not eliminate — this tracking.