How To Turn Off Facebook Link History Tracking and Why You Should

Meta’s facing new restrictions on how it gathers your data. In an effort to keep its investors happy, Meta devised a way to keep selling your data with your permission. Facebook link history is billed as a cute little tool that’ll help you see where you’ve been in the past 30 days. In reality, this is a way for Meta to get your permission to track you. This allows the company to create more targeted ads for you and sell your data.

The link history feature is initially disabled, but the service will prompt you to enable it. If you did it by accident, or are just now realizing you don’t want to trade your privacy for a 30-day history, then we’ll teach you how to disable it. We’ll also recommend additional tools to enhance your online privacy and security, including the best ad blockers.

How do I opt out of Facebook link history?

If you turn on the link tracking feature and later decide you aren’t interested, you can follow these steps to turn it off. We recommend keeping it disabled. While it may help you remember what you’ve looked at, Meta is known for violating its own privacy policies. It doesn’t need any additional help spying on you.

There are two ways to turn off this setting. If you want to go through the settings:

1. Open the Facebook app on your phone.
2. Go to the Menu button.
3. Click Settings and Privacy.
4. Select Settings.
5. Scroll down and select Browser.
6. Click Browsing data.
7. Toggle off Allow link history.

You can also turn off Facebook link history through the links. Here's how:

1. Tap on any link inside the Facebook app. This will open Facebook's mobile browser.
2. Tap the menu button in the bottom right corner, then go to settings.
3. Find link history at the top of the page and make sure it's off.

Why is Facebook tracking link history?

Facebook says it’s tracking link history to give you the option to see all the links you’ve visited in the past 30 days. While this is a nice way to find something you were looking for that you may have forgotten to save, we don’t know if this is the real reason. If you read the fine print, the reason becomes a little clearer.

The help page on turning off link history mentions that Facebook can use this data to improve your ads across all Meta technologies. This is just a fancy way of saying Meta’s watching you, and you’re actually giving permission for them to sell your data to advertisers. Considering that Meta has repeatedly been called out for violating its own privacy policies, it’s a wonder any of us keep these apps on our phones. Data sales is a big business, and Meta is raking in the cash.

Should I turn off Facebook link history tracking?

Yes, you should turn off Facebook link history tracking. By collecting and using your data for targeted ads (and whatever else it isn’t disclosing), Facebook is leaving you more susceptible to spam, phishing, fraud, and other malicious activities you find online. Not to mention the risk of identity theft from credentials sold to data-mining companies.

As a general rule, you shouldn’t give companies the permissions necessary to track you. This means disabling unnecessary cookies, using ad blockers and anti-tracking technology, and, yes, disabling Facebook’s link history tracking. The slight benefit of link tracking isn’t worth the cost of having all your data viewed, especially since Facebook and Instagram are tracking your activity on your entire phone, not just when you’re in the app.

How to protect your privacy on social media

If you’re serious about your privacy, we suggest deleting social media apps from your phone and using the browser option. Your browser has more allowances for security-based software and apps to protect you.

This may sound a little extra, but using your mobile browser to access social media platforms like Facebook can help increase security by incorporating content blockers that may not reach apps. Also, by deleting the apps from your devices, you’re removing Meta’s ability to access other data on your devices. Meta is known for using its apps to snoop into other parts of your phone or computer.

If you’re wondering what kind of security-based software and apps you should use, we’ve compiled a list of what we use and what we think is worth your time and energy:

• Ad blockers
• Anti-trackers
• Virtual private networks (VPNs)
• Identity theft protection services
• Private browsers (like Brave)

Best ad and tracker blockers for social media

Ad and tracker blockers can stop companies like Meta from following you around the web. They work best with browsers rather than apps, but that doesn’t mean they can’t stop some of the tracking Meta does on your mobile device.

Below, we’ve included some of the best ad blockers we’ve tested. We especially like products that offer a variety of security solutions, like antivirus and VPNs with blockers. 

Bottom line

Being tracked online isn’t completely avoidable, but it's worth your time and effort to reduce it as much as you can. If you can do so, it will help protect you from spam, scams, identity theft, and more.

Top-rated ad and tracker blockers do a lot, but you can help the process by rejecting any prompts that give your permission, like Facebook link tracking. It might seem like a nifty little tool, but the real reason is to use your data to make more money.

Facebook link history tracking FAQs