You can change what Facebook thinks of you: Here's how
We all know that Facebook collects a lot of data on its users. The information, gathered directly and indirectly (through outside browsing), helps the company build detailed profiles for serving personalized ads and generating money. But, did you know that there is a way to change what the social network thinks of you? Let's check that out.
First, understand the pre-defined preferences on Facebook
Facebook has a defined list of user preferences, things that it thinks may be of interest to you. The information remains buried in Facebook accounts for serving ads but can be accessed by heading over to Settings > Ads and hitting the 'Your Interests' button. Once you open this page, it shows all the stuff you have frequently liked/clicked, or interacted with.
Tweak the interests by removing items
The 'Your Interests' tab will let you browse through everything the company thinks you might like. The stuff is arranged under sections like "Technology," "People," and "News and Entertainment". But, the important part is, there's also an option to change this. You can click the X icon under every item, be it something general or specific, and tweak the entire list of pre-defined interests.
Finally, access companies that have shared your data with Facebook
After accessing the list of pre-defined interests, scroll down to the 'Advertisers and Businesses' section. This category will show all the companies that have uploaded your information to Facebook for the purpose of advertising. It will show the companies' names and provide the option to remove them and stop their ads from appearing on Facebook's products.
Tweaking preferences will change the ads you see
You should note that tweaking preferences will change the kind of ads you will see on Facebook. For instance, if you have removed Netflix/Playstation from the list of companies or 'video games' from the list of interests, you won't see any ad related to that.
