In the opening paragraphs, we’ll provide quick answers to common questions about stopping meta ads, such as what meta ads are and why you might want to stop them.
What are meta ads?
Meta ads, also known as targeted ads or personalized ads, are advertisements that are tailored specifically to you based on your interests, browsing history, location, demographics, and other personal data. These ads appear on platforms owned by Meta, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.
Why would I want to stop meta ads?
There are a few key reasons you may want to stop personalized ads from Meta:
- Privacy – To prevent Meta from collecting as much personal data to target ads
- Relevance – If you feel the ads are not useful or relevant to you
- Clutter – To remove excess promotional content from your feeds
- Preferences – If you prefer generic ads or simply don’t want personalized ads
How does Meta target ads to me personally?
Meta has access to a vast amount of data about you that it uses to target relevant ads, including:
- Information in your Meta profiles (age, gender, location, interests, etc.)
- Your activity across Meta’s platforms (pages/accounts you follow, content you engage with, purchases, etc.)
- Websites and apps that use Meta’s services (data collected via Meta Pixel, social plugins, etc.)
- Information from ad partners, marketers, and other sources
By combining these data signals, Meta aims to serve ads that align with your unique interests and preferences – but this approach compromises your privacy.
Stopping personalized ads on Facebook
To stop receiving personalized ads on Facebook:
- Click on the dropdown arrow in the top right and select “Settings”.
- Click on “Ads” in the left sidebar.
- Go to the “Ad Settings” section.
- Disable “Ads based on data from partners”, “Ads based on your activity on Facebook Company Products that you see elsewhere”, and other options.
This prevents Facebook from using much of your activity to target ads. However, they may still target ads using basic profile info.
Using Ad Preferences on Facebook
You can further control what ads you see in the “Ad Preferences” section. Here you can hide ad topics you don’t want to see.
Stopping personalized ads on Instagram
To stop personalized ads on Instagram:
- Go to your profile and tap the three-line menu.
- Tap “Settings”.
- Tap “Ads”.
- Disable “Personalized ads”.
This will stop Instagram from using your activity to target ads.
Using Ad Topics Preferences on Instagram
You can manage the specific ad topics you want to see or hide in “Ad Topics Preferences”. This offers more granular control.
Stopping personalized ads on Messenger
To prevent personalized ads in Messenger:
- Open the Messenger app and tap your profile photo.
- Go to “Privacy and Settings”.
- Tap “Ads”.
- Disable “Ads based on data from advertisers and your activity outside of Messenger”.
This will limit Messenger from using your personal data for ads.
Other ways to stop Meta personalized ads
In addition to disabling personalized ads in each Meta app’s settings, here are some other ways to limit ad targeting:
- Restrict Ad Tracking on iOS or opt out of interest-based ads on Android
- Use a privacy-focused web browser like Firefox or Brave to block tracking cookies
- Install browser extensions that block Facebook ad trackers
- Frequently clear your cookies and cache
- Don’t interact with ads you don’t want to see more of
- Limit the personal info you share publicly on your profiles
The limitations of stopping Meta ads
While you can take steps to minimize personalized ads, it’s impossible to fully stop Meta ads due to how embedded their services are across the web. Some limitations include:
- You’ll still see generic, non-targeted ads
- They can still use basic profile info like age, gender, and location to target ads
- If you visit sites that use Meta services, they can collect some data for ads
- Any activity within a Meta app will be used again for ads if you re-enable personalization
Should I disable personalized ads on social media?
Here are some pros and cons to weigh when deciding if you should disable personalized ads:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Increased privacy and less data collection | You may see more irrelevant ads |
| Avoids influence from tailored targeting | Useful offers or recommendations could be missed |
| Reduced promotional clutter in feeds | Meta platforms rely heavily on ad revenue |
| More transparent ad experience | Difficult to completely stop data collection |
Overall, disabling personalized ads increases privacy at the cost of relevance. Many people are willing to make this tradeoff, but it’s an individual decision based on your priorities.
Other ways to increase privacy from Meta ads
In addition to limiting ad personalization, you can take other steps to boost your privacy against Meta’s data collection for advertising:
- Don’t connect your Facebook and Instagram accounts if they aren’t already
- Set your profiles to private so only friends can see posts
- Avoid signing into sites with Facebook Login
- Delete old posts and activity so there’s less data to target
- Don’t link your profiles or contacts across Meta services
- Turn off location services and activity tracking in the apps
- Periodically download and review your information via Meta’s Access Your Information tool
Using Meta platforms without an account
You can use Facebook and Instagram without an account, which limits data collection. However, you lose access to many features this way.
Deleting your Meta accounts
Deleting your Facebook and Instagram accounts completely can stop Meta ad targeting. However, they can still show you generic ads without an account when visiting their services.
Are Meta ads worth the privacy tradeoff?
Meta makes the majority of its revenue through advertising, enabling them to offer free social media platforms. But many users feel this business model exploits their personal data and compromises privacy.
Targeted ads likely provide a degree of usefulness and relevance to balance out the privacy downsides. However,Meta has access to an expansive web of data that far exceeds what’s needed for reasonably relevant ads.
Users must determine their own tolerance for privacy invasion versus personalized content. But Meta could certainly be more transparent about data collection and provide clearer opt-outs without significantly harming the user experience.
How to audit your Meta ad preferences
To understand what Meta’s ad services know about you, you can download your ad interests and information via:
- Facebook Ad Preferences
- Instagram Ad interests
- Meta Ad Topics Preferences
Reviewing this data annually can reveal surprising interests Meta associates with you. You can also remove preferences you don’t want used for targeting.
Beware the “hidden interests” not shown
Research suggests Meta has thousands more ad interests on you than they reveal in these tools. So the extent of their targeting capabilities is greater than you see.
Is stopping Meta ads worth deleting your accounts?
Deleting Facebook and Instagram can be an extreme measure just to escape ad targeting. Key considerations around account deletion include:
- You’ll lose access to friends, groups, and content you enjoy
- Meta will still have your previously collected data
- It’s difficult to delete accounts permanently
- Meta can still show you non-targeted ads without an account
For most people, using the available ad controls without deleting accounts is the best balance. But account deletion may make sense for those highly concerned about Meta’s data practices.
Conclusion
Targeted Meta ads raise valid privacy concerns around excessive data collection. While you can’t eliminate them completely, you have options like disabling personalization, restricting tracking, and managing ad interests to reduce their extent.
Cutting off Meta’s data access to improve privacy involves tradeoffs, like less relevant ads and losing out on offers. But many feel the upside is worth reclaiming some control over their information.
Overall, be very selective in what personal data you provide Meta and utilize available controls to tailor ads according to your comfort level. And consider periodically auditing and clearing their ad profile data on you.