Block Facebook from tracking your online behavior

[Steven P. Administrators]

Was really annoyed to read a newspost a while back that showed Facebook was actively tracking all of its users who visit other sites that contain a "Like" button.

Even if you don't "Like" anything on that site, the data is still stored alongside your profile (for ad targeting and who knows what else?).

You can block Facebook from displaying any Like buttons or Facebook widgets by using AdBlock Plus

Of course I have Neowin whitelisted, so Facebook Like buttons and widgets DO display here (for me) but it gives you more control on what Facebook can track, and imo this should be an opt out option anyway.

Using Adblock Plus for Firefox, to block these items, just add the following two lines to the Adblock rules: (in Preferences)

http://www.facebook.com/external/*

http://www.facebook.com/plugins/*

Now all Facebook content won't display on sites you have blacklisted.

Please remember, if you value Neowin, please whitelist us so that our ads display, we never allow or use pop up/unders!

Of course this applies to Firefox, but for Chrome follow the same steps in Ad Muncher or whatever extension you use.

[+Xinok Subscriber²]

It may be simpler to subscribe to one of the privacy lists instead without blocking ads altogether. It'll block Facebook's tracking as well as many others. There's EasyPrivacy and Fanboy's Tracking List.

[Teebor]

I think its funny that if you didn't know about this and went to a pron site with a facebook "like" button it would be tracking you :D lol

[Charisma Veteran]

Thank you for that!

[hotosega]

Thanks Neobond and Xinok,

This is great :)

[PixilEyes]

I also use Ghostery.

[Unksi]

It may be simpler to subscribe to one of the privacy lists instead without blocking ads altogether. It'll block Facebook's tracking as well as many others. There's EasyPrivacy and Fanboy's Tracking List.

There is also Adversity anti-social list which is specifically catered to block social media outside their own websites.

[He's Dead Jim]

Thanks for the info :)

[Singh400]

For those of you using IE9 like I do sometimes you can the good ones here.

[garychencool]

you could run facebook in private browsing mode.

[bjoswald]

Just use Ad Muncher and block web trash globally. No ads, no Facebook malware, et all. Best of all, it works on ALL browsers.

[The_Observer]

so in chrome i use adblock, i just manually add these two sites? adblock/options/customize/Manually edit your filters:

[farmeunit]

you could run facebook in private browsing mode.

I didn't think that protected you from websites seeing what you are doing. Just didn't store history, etc..

[cooky560 Veteran]

I didn't think that protected you from websites seeing what you are doing. Just didn't store history, etc..

It doesn't even do that, it just deletes whatever you were doing in that window when it's closed. (It needs to keep cookies and history temporarily for sites and the back/forward buttons to work)

[Fraud OS 11]

Neowin should disallow floating flash ads too. They're worse than popups.

[game_over]

It's not really an issue for me, personally i would rather have targeted ads, than random crap i'll never click.

[d4diesel]

for chrome, there is an extension aimed just to block social media site tracking. its called facebook disconnect:

link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ejpepffjfmamnambagiibghpglaidiec

[expphoto]

I second this. Adblock Plus is amazing!

[Mr.XXIV]

Well, guys, I've been able to prevent Facebook from telling people that I've read their messages on Chrome! :p

http://crossrider.com/install/14917-chat-undetected

[n_K]

for chrome, there is an extension aimed just to block social media site tracking. its called facebook disconnect:

link: https://chrome.googl...giibghpglaidiec

Yes, it works for firefox too and there's one for google and twitter too, works very well.

(Only downside to the google one is it blocks ALL google sites, including those that just host files and javascript includes, so I have to disable it for a number of sites)

[Tha Bloo Monkee]

Well, guys, I've been able to prevent Facebook from telling people that I've read their messages on Chrome! :p

http://crossrider.co...chat-undetected

thanks for the link.

did anyone else notice this thread was resurrected from 2011 though?

:rofl:

[Mr.XXIV]

thanks for the link.

did anyone else notice this thread was resurrected from 2011 though?

:rofl:

Na. :|

[_neutrino Veteran]

excellent, why not give this a try .

[Growled Member]

Some good information, guys. Thanks.