Facebook privacy settings: what changes, and what Meta still gets

You make your posts private, remove a few old photographs and turn off Facebook's microphone permission. Then another privacy story appears, and apparently there is another setting somewhere that you were supposed to know about.

Part of the confusion is that these controls are doing different jobs. Who can see a birthday photograph is one question. Whether a shop sends Meta information about your purchases is another. Whether Meta uses a conversation you have with its AI is another again.

You can keep your child's face off your profile and still give away family information through an adult account. A purchase, a contact list or an identifying detail in an AI question can do that. So start by separating the things you want to change; otherwise it is easy to finish one privacy check and assume it covered all the others.

The old off-Facebook instructions are changing

If a tutorial sends you to Your activity off Meta technologies to disconnect future activity, its screenshots may no longer match your account. Meta announced in June 2026 that it was retiring that control, with changes starting in the US and other countries in July and reaching additional regions later. The rollout announcement.

The replacement is Activity from other businesses. It covers using information sent by other websites, apps and businesses to personalize content, including ads. Meta's examples now include recommendations and AI responses. Choosing not to allow that use does not stop businesses sending the activity. Meta says it may still anonymize it or use it to improve products, and information from external accounts you deliberately connect has separate treatment. What the updated setting controls.

You are limiting a use of the information. You are not deleting a history or making every outside business stop communicating with Meta.

Find the current control and check the saved choice

Facebook's current computer instructions give this route:

1. Open your profile picture → Settings & privacy → Settings.
2. Open Accounts Center → Your information and permissions.
3. Open Activity from other businesses.
4. Choose whether Meta may use that activity for the personalization described on the screen. Confirm if you change the choice.

Meta is also moving some people to Meta Account settings, so the account-settings name can differ. Its help page recommends updating the app or opening Accounts Center in a browser if the steps don't work. Europe and the UK have different ad choices; follow the regional branch linked from the current instructions rather than looking indefinitely for a switch your account doesn't offer.

After saving, leave the setting and open it again. Check that the choice remains selected and that you were looking at the intended account. Meta says the choice applies across accounts in the same Accounts Center; separately grouped accounts may need a separate check.

You will still see personalized content based on other information, including what you do on Meta's own services. A parenting ad appearing afterward doesn't, by itself, show that the change failed.

A shop's customer list is another route

There is a reason an outside-business switch may not stop every familiar advertiser. Meta distinguishes activity sent by businesses from customer lists used to reach particular people. A business can supply a list that matches accounts, for example after people sign up for its emails. Meta's explanation of these separate routes.

The same help page links to Audience-based advertising. Sign in to the account you want to review and choose an advertiser shown there. Note the company name if you want to ask it to remove your details. Hiding its ads does not delete your customer record with that business.

If you want the business to remove those details, that request goes to the business too. Keep the name of the company and what you asked it to delete. An ad disappearing is not confirmation that the company has erased your customer record.

Stop contact uploads, then deal with the old contacts

A parent's address book can include other parents, teachers, coaches and family members. Allowing a social app to use that list is a separate decision from letting it show your photographs to friends.

In the Facebook mobile app, open Menu → Settings & privacy → Settings → Accounts Center → Your information and permissions → Upload contacts, then choose the Facebook account. Switch off Upload contacts. Repeat this on each device where you use the Facebook app. Facebook's contact-upload controls.

Revoking the phone's Contacts permission alone does not delete contacts already sent to Facebook. For those, Facebook's computer instructions point to Uploading and managing your contacts, then Delete All. Review the list first so you know which uploaded records you are removing. This is a deletion of uploaded contacts, not an instruction to unfriend everyone. Facebook's deletion instructions.

If the link opens a login screen, sign in to the intended account and reopen it. Check the contact-management screen after the action. If contacts return, check the other phones and tablets still using that account; an enabled upload setting can supply them again. Facebook says this does not switch off contact uploading in Messenger; check Messenger separately if you use it.

Keep AI questions separate from ad preferences

Meta has announced using text and voice conversations with Meta AI for personalization in most regions. Those are conversations you send to an AI feature; that announcement is not evidence of every private conversation between family members being read for ads. The phone-listening guide follows that distinction and the microphone checks.

An AI-training objection is also different from an ad preference. The Meta AI and children's photos guide explains the EU public-content policy, who can object and why a child's photo on an adult's public account needs attention even when children's accounts are excluded.

Before asking an AI about something personal, remove details it doesn't need. “Ideas for indoor play with a toddler” does not need a full name, an address or a nursery schedule attached. If the question needs a document or photograph, check what is visible in it before uploading; the identifying detail may be in a school logo or a letter on the table.

A privacy promise is worth checking against what happened

In 2023, the FTC finalized an order against BetterHelp after alleging that it shared information including email addresses, IP addresses and health-questionnaire information with advertising companies, despite privacy assurances. The order banned certain advertising disclosures and required $7.8 million for consumer refunds. The FTC's final order announcement.

That case concerns BetterHelp's conduct, not proof that a particular children's service does the same thing. Before submitting a family form, leave optional identifying details blank unless the service needs them. If its privacy information does not explain sharing for advertising, ask the business before sending details you want to keep private.

Choose each post's audience before sharing too. Keep a short record of what you changed and which account it applied to. If you also want older Facebook material gone, continue with the complete cleanup guide; changing data preferences won't remove those posts for you.