from Hacker News

How to change your settings to make yourself less valuable to Meta

by SLHamlet on 2/25/25, 3:47 AM with 122 comments

  • by jasode on 2/25/25, 10:05 AM

    Every thread about Meta/Facebook always has the save advice to "Just stop using Facebook. Problem solved!"

    The HN demographic can follow that but many normies can't because Facebook provides functionality for sharing that can't be replicated by email mailing lists / RSS readers / Mastodon / vBulletin, phpBB boards, etc.

    E.g. my friend sees a Youtuber doing some interesting sewing projects to make clothes. To facilitate discussion and collaboration with viewers (sharing photos, videos of projects), the Youtuber created a Facebook group. That's what non-techies do to empower themselves.

    Similar situation with normal people using Facebook to share calendars for kids baseball games etc where multiple families can see the same canonical list of upcoming scheduled events.

    So the article's recommendations for minimizing data collection can help those people who use Facebook in ways that enhances their lives.

    For the folks that only use Facebook to doomscroll an algorithmic newsfeed (a glorified "RSS reader"), that's the type of user that can "just stop using Facebook".

    I keep a dummy Facebook account with no followers and nofriends just to access stuff that's exclusively on Facebook. E.g. when I was looking for a tree service to remove some storm damaged trees, it so happened that every tree company I was interested in only used Facebook for up-to-date info. The ones that had their own websites were not maintained and had out of date information. On the other hand, their Facebook pages had the most recent photos of their equipment and their correct phone number. My guess is updating their "real website" requires calling and paying for a web design service to edit things whereas their Facebook page can be updated from the business owner's smartphone for $0.

    Because of non-activity on my dummy Facebook account, I worry that Meta will someday flag it as a bot and revoke access.

  • by jillesvangurp on 2/25/25, 5:55 AM

    I use Firefox containers for meta controlled domains. I don't trust third party websites to not pass information to Meta or meta to not be greedy. So, a complete absence of meta related cookies and other cruft is the best defense against that. I mostly stopped checking Facebook. I have a few things with social logins tied to Facebook that I open in the same container that I can't be bothered to untangle.

    I've de-activated my instagram account ages ago. I just have no interest in what happens there. People sharing images and short videos just annoys me mostly. So, I'm happy to let people entertain each other over there without distracting me. In the same way, I have zero interest in tik tok, youtube shorts, and related nonsense from competitors. My life is rich enough without that.

    Whatsapp unfortunately remains a necessary evil because that's what most people I know seem to insist on using. I mostly use it in a browser tab because I hate typing on mobile phones. My thumbs keep hitting the wrong tiny keys. If I type 3 letters, 2 will be wrong. I probably should move whatsapp to its own container. Thankfully it remains ad-free so far (or my adblocker is just that good, hard to tell these days). I think meta mostly walked back controversial plans to do something about that.

  • by parasti on 2/25/25, 7:05 AM

    I am in the EU. I opted out of targeted ads a while back when the Facebook app asked me about it and it is now showing me inline ads with a timer. I literally have to wait before I can continue doomscrolling which is just enough time to just put the phone down and go back to work. Thank you, Meta.

  • by aqueueaqueue on 2/25/25, 4:56 AM

    I changed a setting a decade ago to make myself less valuable to Facebook and that was close my account.

  • by pwdisswordfishz on 2/25/25, 8:21 AM

    Even better: just stop using their services. Given that these settings are presented to you by a party you already don't trust, why should you believe they don't do the opposite of what they say?

  • by procaryote on 2/25/25, 8:37 AM

    Things like this are just rationalisations to keep doing something unhealthy with a better conscience. Sure, it probably helps a tiny bit, but if you're aware enough of how bad facebook is for the world, just stop using their services.

    People were able to live without facebook before it existed, and you can again. Just arrange to interact with the people you care about face to face or via a call.

    The people you "keep in touch with" by sometimes pressing like are not real relationships

  • by flanked-evergl on 2/25/25, 7:13 AM

    If you don't want Meta to be viable as a company, the best approach is to stop using their services altogether.

  • by Nursie on 2/25/25, 5:14 AM

    You can also remove yourself from ad topics, and even if you don't want to remove yourself from them it can be interesting to take a look and see what meta has associated you with - https://accountscenter.facebook.com/ads/ad_topics

    It won't stop you getting ads, of course, and I have yet to find the holy grail of fictional facebook settings "Never show me reels or suggest groups you think I might be interested in, stick to my actual friends".

  • by unsnap_biceps on 2/25/25, 4:54 AM

    I actually sorta wonder if "No, don’t make my ads more relevant by using this information" makes you more valuable, as they'll just display the most valuable ads they can to you.

  • by Liquidor on 2/25/25, 8:37 AM

    I've got a couple of thoughts.

    1) Why do you guys care what ads are being displayed to you?

    2) Do you even allow ads to be displayed in the first place (ad blockers etc.) ?

    3) Yes, we get it. Uninstall Facebook/IG/WhatsApp..., but no. Most people in the world use these, and you're still targeted without using them.

    4) Why just Meta? What about Google, YouTube, Bing and many other ad providers?

    5) Is this a political campaign by Warner Bros., EFF or someone else?

    6) Shouldn't this stuff just be regulated instead? I'm sure the EU has some regulations at least. What about the US?

  • by dijksterhuis on 2/25/25, 4:48 AM

    > johnoliverwantsyourraterotica.com

    well ... now I obviously have to find out about the joke behind this. i've missed watching angry puffin/penguin man.

    edit --

    might be a non-USA / UK localisation thing but for the first two items, "Manage info" is actually called "Ad settings"

    also, on the third one, you can also clear any previous activity from your account on top of disconnecting future activity.

  • by kevin_thibedeau on 2/25/25, 7:27 AM

    Don't use any apps with Facebook integration. They phone home even if you aren't logged in.

  • by beAbU on 2/25/25, 9:28 AM

    I live in Ireland, but I speak an African language natively. I changed my facebook language to my native language, and I get basically zero ads, because the Algorithm can't figure out how to show me Irish ads in a language that the ad does not support.

  • by __coder__ on 2/25/25, 6:15 AM

    One step solution, delete your account.

  • by stevage on 2/25/25, 8:41 AM

    Oh thanks. I had already done the first two. Didn't know about the third.

  • by MisterKent on 2/25/25, 7:36 AM

    Just tap every ad you come accross until every advertiser leaves the platform

  • by eleveriven on 2/25/25, 9:30 AM

    It's wild how much effort it takes just to opt out of being tracked

  • by mjan22640 on 2/25/25, 7:44 AM

    Send them an invoice for the rental of your screen space to display ads.

  • by glimshe on 2/25/25, 11:15 AM

    After one weird trick, Facebook became a lot of more valuable to me... Including its ads. Tldr: be radical about your interests and Facebook will become interesting.

    I literally unfollowed all of my friends with the exception of a handful of family members; this means I stopped receiving updates for stuff like "look how cute my baby is in the dinosaur costume". Then I joined dozens of groups narrowly focused on my interests.

    The result is an online service were I only read stuff I like, very few reels (unfortunately they don't yet allow you to fully disable reels, but you can still indirectly downvote them) and even the ads are interesting and relevant. I've clicked on a few of them, which fed back to the algorithm and showed me even more products I actually want to buy and news I want to read.

  • by noirscape on 2/25/25, 9:20 AM

    While this will probably help for people still tied to Facebook and related services, this unfortunately does little to stop their shadow profiling capabilities (which Facebook is known to do).

    If you don't have a Facebook account, make sure to get an ad blocker[0] and activate the anti-annoyance, privacy and social widget lists in the settings. That should stop most of the passive site tracking that Facebook does. It's a much ruder way of stopping it, but to be frank, I'd argue that this form of tracking is inherently rude in and of itself (and therefore an adequate response.)

    You should also absolutely install Consent-o-Matic[1] which automatically handles any cookie banners for you. The extension is unfortunately a necessity because most corporations (Facebook included) refuse to comply with the GDPR as it's written and make opting out unnecessarily difficult, with many hidden buttons you'd need to manually reject. Unlike other cookie form handlers, this one defaults to "most private" and will give you control again if it fails to reject the entire form. (This is unlike IDCAC, which just takes the shortest path to closing the form, even if it compromises your privacy to do so.)

    Both of these extensions will of course also help against way more than just Facebook, and they're pretty much a default whenever I'm configuring a PC these days.

    [0]: I can only recommend ublock origin, most other ones are running extortion schemes to show you "acceptable ads" anyway. https://ublockorigin.com/

    [1]: https://consentomatic.au.dk/

  • by tbrownaw on 2/25/25, 5:27 AM

    1. Install ublock origin

    2. Spend less time on their website. Go touch grass or something

    3. Mobile apps are right out

  • by Daz1 on 2/25/25, 6:43 AM

    Why would I want to do this?