In my May newsletter, I shared information about Meta (Facebook/Instagram) hauling in your partner-shared information. Starting June 9, 2026 and rolling out to users through much of July, Meta pulled the rug out from under our feet.
Here’s what is still accurate from the May 5 article: Meta pulls information like a black hole pulls in light.
The settings I suggested in May to manage or disconnect future activity are gone like a browser tab you forgot to bookmark. Meta has updated its policy.
Now Meta offers one setting: “Activity from other businesses” and they will use it to personalize your feed and AI responses. Of course, they promise no new data is being collected. They’ll just use what they already have.
Here’s what you can do, if you want:
🔒 Open your Facebook account (be sure you're logged in) and click on your photo in the upper right-hand corner. (I'm using a browser window. You may have to adjust if you're trying this in the phone app.)
🔒 Choose Settings & Privacy from the dropdown menu. Then Settings.
🔒 Go to Accounts Center.
🔒 Select Your Information and Permissions > Activity from other businesses. (Note: The previous "Your Activity Off Meta Technologies" option is being phased out.)
🔒 Here you can review and clear previous activity if desired, and toggle Activity from other businesses off to limit future use of this data for ads, your Feed, and AI responses.
Because Meta is still rolling out this new policy, you may not see the new settings yet. US customers should all be updated by July.
Business can still report your online web visits to Meta. This setting just tells Meta not to act on the information and, of course, Meta won’t because it values our privacy. Indeed. Our shopping information is very valuable to Meta.
As a friend said recently, “This is the price of free.”