So you want to get rid of the zillions of Ads and suggestions you are seeing on your Facebook newsfeed?
In order to be as Ad-free as possible, you will need to do a little legwork so you can make your preferences known to Facebook and hopefully, honored.
Give us about two hours of your time, follow along with this step by step post, and within 24 hours, you will be relatively Ad-free.
Let's Get To Work
Log on to your Facebook account, then go to this link:
Figure 1 - Landing Screen
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Clicking the above link brings you to this landing screen |
FIRST SECTION: - Your Interests
Looking at Figure 2, ideally you should have no Interests showing so if you want to be "Ad-free," remove all Interests.
But if you feel the need to keep just one or two Interests, choose wisely because you are going to see Ads for them until you remove them from Interests, and your FOLLOW list, and your LIKES list.
Open INTERESTS section to see what I am showing in Figure 2. If there are any items there, remove them. Refer to Figure 3 for how to do it.
We know it is tempting to keep one or two Interests, for example to support a local Mom and Pop store near you. If you are thinking that you can tolerate seeing one Ad a day by keeping one Interest, that it can't possibly be that bad, think again.
It will never be one Ad a day for that one Interest. Your timeline, newsfeed, popups, and email will get bombarded with Ads from tons of other Advertisers: those who sell the same product, suggestions to LIKE their Facebook Page, coupons to get you to go to their site or their store, requests to share their website, invite your friends to LIKE their site, etc. It never stops.
Notice Figure 3 above says:
You have this preference because you clicked on an Ad "related to Business."
You didn't intentionally put this Interest there. You clicked on an Ad that was about that "topic."
So it's not the Ads for that store that you are going to get inundated with, it is Ads for the product that the store sells.
Let's say that the Interest you chose to keep is Clothing - not a particular Clothing Store, just Clothing in general.
This means you will see Ads for every Advertiser who sells Clothing
plus
every Advertiser who distributes Clothing
plus
every Advertiser who ships Clothing
plus
every Advertiser who manufactures Clothing
You might even see Ads for people in your area who do Alterations at a Dry Cleaner establishment.
Do you see how far this can go?
It is very important for you to know how Facebook sells their Ad space so you know how to protect yourself.
Facebook sells Ad space in blocks of 10 Ads. Every week, Facebook gives coupons to every present Advertiser, every Facebook Page owner, and anyone who wants to create a contact list using Facebook.
Do you remember us telling you that ANYONE can make a Facebook Page? Even regular casino game players? They do it so they can get your information because every LIKE gives them certain information that, as a Page owner, Facebook allows them to have so they can better target their audience. This is why Scammers are able to zero in on certain game players, get their email address, access to their friends list and if they are dumb enough to put their phone number on their Facebook account, then they are ripe for hacking.
But to get back to the task at hand here.
Each one is given $50 coupons to buy space for 10 Ads, and $100 to buy space for 50 Ads or more. The bigger the company and the more advertising they do, the higher the coupon value. A block of 10 Ads can cost about $150, for a scammer whose victims can yield 100 times that amount, $150 is a drop in the bucket to them.
These kinds of incentives make Advertisers want to buy Ads on Facebook because the space is so cheap and the audience is already established - they are primed.
To put this in context, if you keep 10 Interests on this Advertiser tab as shown in Figure 2 above OR on your LIKES list, that is a minimum of 100 Ads a day you will be seeing for those 10 Interests. But you aren't done yet.
Multiply that by an unknown number of distributors, unknown number of shippers, and the unknown number of manufacturers of that type of product.
Those 100 Ads a day that you were seeing now exceed 1000 Ads a day - littering your Facebook newsfeed, sidebars and popups. But you aren't done yet.
If you FOLLOW any of them on Facebook, even if you removed them from this Interests list and your LIKES list, you will need to eliminate them from your FOLLOW list to have a shot at being free of Ads. But you aren't done yet.
If you provided your email address to any game, any website for a product, any company you do mail order with or for any freebies, then you can be sure you will be getting email from them too. Many companies sell their lists.
To keep them appeased, Facebook assures them that their Ad will be placed in prime traffic locations and will only be shown to people who have shown an "Interest in your product."
The items you keep on this Interests section means you are "showing an interest in their product" and it is how Facebook can justify and make the guarantee to assure the Advertiser that the target audience is in place and that their Advertising money is money well spent.
You are helping Facebook fulfill that promise to these Advertisers every time you add an Interest, give a LIKE or Follow a topic.
But you are also giving Facebook permission to let the Advertiser see all user activity and user location. This is so they can choose better Ads and so they can target Ads for specific stores in your area (within a few miles of your home location).
And that's why you see Ads for local merchants.
You have to go to the root to get rid of the weed, and that's what we are trying to do with this post to adjust the settings on your Facebook.
But if you feel the need to keep just one or two Interests, choose wisely because you are going to see Ads for them until you remove them from Interests, and your FOLLOW list, and your LIKES list.
Figure 2 - View Of All Topics
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Your goal is to see nothing under each tab |
Open INTERESTS section to see what I am showing in Figure 2. If there are any items there, remove them. Refer to Figure 3 for how to do it.
Figure 3 - How To Remove
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| This is where the X is - to remove each Interest |
If You Want To Keep One Or Two Special Interests
It will never be one Ad a day for that one Interest. Your timeline, newsfeed, popups, and email will get bombarded with Ads from tons of other Advertisers: those who sell the same product, suggestions to LIKE their Facebook Page, coupons to get you to go to their site or their store, requests to share their website, invite your friends to LIKE their site, etc. It never stops.
Notice Figure 3 above says:
You have this preference because you clicked on an Ad "related to Business."
You didn't intentionally put this Interest there. You clicked on an Ad that was about that "topic."
So it's not the Ads for that store that you are going to get inundated with, it is Ads for the product that the store sells.
For Example:
Let's say that the Interest you chose to keep is Clothing - not a particular Clothing Store, just Clothing in general.
This means you will see Ads for every Advertiser who sells Clothing
plus
every Advertiser who distributes Clothing
plus
every Advertiser who ships Clothing
plus
every Advertiser who manufactures Clothing
You might even see Ads for people in your area who do Alterations at a Dry Cleaner establishment.
Do you see how far this can go?
Targeting Customers
It is very important for you to know how Facebook sells their Ad space so you know how to protect yourself.
Facebook sells Ad space in blocks of 10 Ads. Every week, Facebook gives coupons to every present Advertiser, every Facebook Page owner, and anyone who wants to create a contact list using Facebook.
Do you remember us telling you that ANYONE can make a Facebook Page? Even regular casino game players? They do it so they can get your information because every LIKE gives them certain information that, as a Page owner, Facebook allows them to have so they can better target their audience. This is why Scammers are able to zero in on certain game players, get their email address, access to their friends list and if they are dumb enough to put their phone number on their Facebook account, then they are ripe for hacking.
But to get back to the task at hand here.
Each one is given $50 coupons to buy space for 10 Ads, and $100 to buy space for 50 Ads or more. The bigger the company and the more advertising they do, the higher the coupon value. A block of 10 Ads can cost about $150, for a scammer whose victims can yield 100 times that amount, $150 is a drop in the bucket to them.
These kinds of incentives make Advertisers want to buy Ads on Facebook because the space is so cheap and the audience is already established - they are primed.
To put this in context, if you keep 10 Interests on this Advertiser tab as shown in Figure 2 above OR on your LIKES list, that is a minimum of 100 Ads a day you will be seeing for those 10 Interests. But you aren't done yet.
Multiply that by an unknown number of distributors, unknown number of shippers, and the unknown number of manufacturers of that type of product.
Those 100 Ads a day that you were seeing now exceed 1000 Ads a day - littering your Facebook newsfeed, sidebars and popups. But you aren't done yet.
If you FOLLOW any of them on Facebook, even if you removed them from this Interests list and your LIKES list, you will need to eliminate them from your FOLLOW list to have a shot at being free of Ads. But you aren't done yet.
If you provided your email address to any game, any website for a product, any company you do mail order with or for any freebies, then you can be sure you will be getting email from them too. Many companies sell their lists.
How They Find YOU
It is true that the Advertisers can't choose exactly who sees their Ads or choose where on Facebook that they want their Ads to appear.To keep them appeased, Facebook assures them that their Ad will be placed in prime traffic locations and will only be shown to people who have shown an "Interest in your product."
The items you keep on this Interests section means you are "showing an interest in their product" and it is how Facebook can justify and make the guarantee to assure the Advertiser that the target audience is in place and that their Advertising money is money well spent.
You are helping Facebook fulfill that promise to these Advertisers every time you add an Interest, give a LIKE or Follow a topic.
What You May Not Know
By keeping an item on your Interests, you are also giving permission to Facebook to show you their Advertisements.But you are also giving Facebook permission to let the Advertiser see all user activity and user location. This is so they can choose better Ads and so they can target Ads for specific stores in your area (within a few miles of your home location).
And that's why you see Ads for local merchants.
You have to go to the root to get rid of the weed, and that's what we are trying to do with this post to adjust the settings on your Facebook.
Figure 4 - People
 |
Starting with PEOPLE, click X to remove the Interest |
You need to click on each section to expand them to see what and who you are granting permission to.
Figure 5- Travel, Places and Events |
Go Travel and Click X at right side of the picture to remove |
Figure 6 - News and Entertainment
 |
Go to News and Click X at right side of picture to remove |
Figure 7 - Business and Industry
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Whether it is one of your choices, or one of Facebook's suggestions, click X to remove it so you don't see ads for it. |
Figure 8 - Lifestyle and Culture
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Go to Lifestyle and Culture. Click X at right side of picture to remove |
Figure 9 - More
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Go to MORE to see OTHER |
Figure 10 - Other
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Other is located under the MORE tab, Click MORE to expose Other |
Figure 11 - Removed Interests
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Here is where you can review all that you removed |
After you click REMOVED INTERESTS, you end up where we are showing on Figure 12 below.
Figure 12. Your Removed Interests
Nothing is lighted up here and it shouldn't be. About the only thing this screen is good for is in case you want to recover something you accidentally deleted or if you need to refresh your memory of who you deleted.
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You should check these tabs at least once a month to make sure any updates done by Facebook haven't changed your settings for you.
TIP
Any NEW LIKE you put on your LIKES list has the ability to change your permissions. Facebook also allows your LIKES to be added as an INTEREST in this section. You will know this happened when you start to see their advertisements.
The removal remedy is easy:
1 - Go to LIKES and Unlike the Like,
2 - Block their Facebook Page if they have one so they can't re-add themselves later.
3 - Go to Your Ads, then go to each tab and remove them.
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NEXT SECTION: Advertisers you've interacted with.
These are companies with whom you either clicked their ads or you have done business with at one time - both on and off line.
Figure 13 - Advertisers You've Interacted with
 |
Expand ADVERTISERS YOU INTERACTED WITH tab |
Close Your Interests section and expand Advertisers You've Interacted With section.
In our opinion, they should have put this section first because anything you leave on this tab will be considered your preference - saying that you want to see their Ads.
Most people stop working on these preferences after they remove their Interests and they never get as far as this section.
Figure 14 - Advertisers Contact List and You are on it.
 |
These are advertisers you either clicked on their ads, looked for a coupon, looked up a location or have had some interaction with. Most of them add their Contact List to their Facebook Page. As long as YOU have them on this Advertisers tab, OR they are on your LIKES list, then your name is on their Contact List. |
As long as your LIKE is on their Page OR as long as they are on your Advertisers list in this section, you are considered one of their contacts and they have an open permission to keep showing you their Ads.
However, it isn't hard to get off their contact list because it is a virtual list. All you have to do is remove them from your LIKES list (if they are on it) and remove them from this Advertisers section and your name comes off their Contact List.
Another way they get on this Advertisers list is when you clicked ALLOW on the Allow/Deny popup to let your location be detected.
Every time you are looking for the closest Pizza Hut or Olive Garden (for example), you are encouraged to ALLOW your location so they can show you the closest store. That's how they get on this Advertisers list.
If that is your habit, break the habit and it will cut down the amount of Ads considerably.
You should not be allowing any popup to access your location because your IP address can be accessed by others, so that there are more people using your internet connection - not just you.
Also, by clicking ALLOW for your location, the small print says you gave them permission to show your Facebook friends list, your online activity, and your Facebook functions (games, comments on posts, etc.)
If you haven't figured it out by now, there are literally no privacy settings on Facebook because for every door you close, there is another door you never saw.
Figure 15 - Whose Website or APP You've Used
 |
| Our example shows No Advertisers "Whose Website or APP You've Used", but you need to keep an eye on this because all it takes is clicking on one APP or one Website and you will see them show up here. |
Figure 16 - Whom You've Visited
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| Our example shows No Advertisers "Whom You've Visited" but again, you need to keep an eye on this because it only takes one click for them to show up here. |
If you are in the habit of using the CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK button to connect to sites that are Facebook enabled, please stop doing that.
We know it is easy and makes it so you don't have to create an account on their website, but you are exposing your Facebook information to someone you don't know.
And you are now Following them while off Facebook.
And they will be on your Interests list on Google, on Facebook and in the cookies stored on your device.
Figure 17 - The Convenience of the Connect Using Facebook Button
It is never good to CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK because your public profile and email address is included in the information they require for you to have the convenience of using that button.
Some sites actually want access to your activity, your friends list, and your LIKES list. If you are going to all the trouble of protecting your privacy online, then this one habit will undo all of the protection that you "think" you have in place.
Figure 18 - Ads You Clicked, Ads You've Hidden
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Click MORE and you get two more tabs |
Figure 19 - First, Whose Ads You've Clicked
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Notice this section gives you an opportunity to REPORT an Advertiser |
Figure 20 - Second, Whom You've Hidden
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These are all the ads you hid, and if you want to report any of them for violations, this is where you would do it. |
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NEXT SECTION: Your Information
Figure 20 - About You
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Because your profile shows certain information, Facebook is targeting you FOR the Advertiser which is why your public profile is always included by default to the Advertiser. |
If you show your Employment, Education, or Location on the "ABOUT" section on your Facebook Profile and if you turn it off as seen here in Figure 20, your information from your actual Facebook Profile will take precedence over this section.
This is a section which few people even know about.
Now you do. So turn it off in both places.
For us, we don't show our demographics on our Facebook "About" section or anywhere else. We also turn it off here. It is for our own security, and allows us to feel a little bit in control of our privacy.
Figure 21 - Your Categories
Read the red outlined text in Figure 21 above.
"These categories HELP Advertisers reach people who would be interested in their products. So Facebook "added you to these categories based on information provided on Facebook and other activity."
So if you connect using WIFI,
OR
If you regularly connect with one particular Internet provider
OR
If you have changed the mobile network or device that you use to access Facebook change
OR
If your online actions or conversation say you are considering making a device change or mobile provider change - then Facebook, in all their wisdom - took it upon themselves to make these decisions FOR YOU by putting you in these categories.
They did it by eavesdropping. They can see how you access Facebook and everything you say and do while on Facebook.
This is another hidden Interest that you wouldn't even know to look for had you not read this post.
To change the above settings that Facebook chose for you, click the "X" on each category which will put a line through each one and opt you out of the topic. It may be hard to see, but we did put a Line through each one on Figure 22 below.
Figure 22 - Your Categories Amended
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Facebook always has an agenda. They use the information provided by their users in ways the user is unaware of. Click the X on each section and it will remove this hidden INTEREST you never knew about. |
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NEXT SECTION: Ad Settings
This section has more to do with affiliate websites that Facebook owns. The choices you make here tells Facebook what ads they can show you based on your interests AND on any information they gather from your Facebook apps AND from any websites that Facebook owns and shares information.
Click on each one so you can gain an understanding of what you are "allowing" them to see or use. We chose NOT ALLOWED on the first two and NO ONE on the third.
Figure 23 - Ad Settings
Expand each section so you can see how Facebook gets around even the most strict privacy setting.
Figure 23A Ads Based on Facebook Partners
They are asking to use data that is provided to them by Advertisers and other partners about your activity when you ARE NOT on Facebook, in other words, surfing the Internet. If you chose ALLOW or don't make a choice, they consider that you gave them your permission to use the data.
This section defines what we told you above -- that searching for a specific item is not the only product they will show you in Ads, but rather everything that is connected with that product.
Example: If you search for items that a bride would ask for on her wedding registry, you will also see Ads for not only everything listed on a wedding registry, but also honeymoon destinations, bridal shops, tuxedo rental, wedding reception halls, ways to travel to honeymoon destinations, including cruise line Ads, airline Ads, car rentals and even toasters, blenders and bed linen.
It is the same as the algorithm we told you about a few years ago when we showed you that Facebook uses the six degrees of separation algorithm. One topic leads to another and by the time you get far down the line, the last item has very little to do with the first and usually turns out to be something that is of no interest to you.
Facebook will keep whatever data they have on you up until you made this change in your permissions. Changing this section won't decrease the number of Ads you see, but the Ads will be self contained to what your activity is on Facebook, not so much on the partner websites they own.
If you share your contact info with any online business, Facebook is allowed to match YOUR profile to THEIR customer list and that's how they find out specifically who you are. They can look you up by email address or Facebook profile and contact you accordingly.
However, we learned that if you don't make the same changes on the Apps and websites that Facebook owns and if you still continue to use them, then any changes you make here will not carry over to the other sites.
Figure 23B - Ads based on your Facebook activity that you will see elsewhere when you aren't ON Facebook
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| Read the text on your own device as it might be more clear than this picture. |
What this means is that any website or company that allows Facebook to advertise on them (and who doesn't allow Facebook to advertise, their Ads are everywhere!), this setting allows Facebook to use your Facebook activity to target you on Ads that are on non-Facebook websites only because Facebook advertises on them.
What they have done here is slammed the back door so everything is in favor of the Advertiser and not much is left in favor of the user.
Any advertiser who buys Ads on or through Facebook for use on Facebook or on Facebook owned websites, can also choose to have their Ads viewed on Audience Network websites. That means any off-Facebook website you visit that has Facebook Ads on it, if an Advertiser chooses, he can choose to have his Ads distributed to that network to keep targeting YOU and anyone who has similar preferences and permissions.
What they have done here is slammed the back door so everything is in favor of the Advertiser and not much is left in favor of the user.
Any advertiser who buys Ads on or through Facebook for use on Facebook or on Facebook owned websites, can also choose to have their Ads viewed on Audience Network websites. That means any off-Facebook website you visit that has Facebook Ads on it, if an Advertiser chooses, he can choose to have his Ads distributed to that network to keep targeting YOU and anyone who has similar preferences and permissions.
By choosing NOT ALLOWED, that stops the targeting on off-Facebook sites.
Figure 23C - Ads that include your social actions
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This section addresses things you LIKE, Follow, Comment on, Share, Apps You Use, Check ins, Recommendations, Review, and Events you attend and asks you to allow others to see the activities, so they can target them with Ads too. |
Selecting NO ONE denies them permission.
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NEXT SECTION: Hide Ad Topics
This tells Facebook how long you want them to hide ads. The topics on our picture are the default topics that Facebook picks. But your topics might be different than ours.
You can "suggest other topics" but we don't think it does any good. Maggie suggested several topics and her Ads haven't changed in years. She asked not to be shown political ads, and if anything, she saw more of them, not less.
Figure 24 - Hide Ad Topics
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| There is only ONE that is important! |
And you are done.
Contributors: Maggie King and Cally Russell
This information is deemed accurate and current as of September 10, 2018
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