Facebook knows a lot about us, and sometimes a bit more than we would like. If you’d like to try and keep your activities as private as possible, then you might want to consider the steps we are highlighting below, which will show you ways to clear your Facebook search history, manage your activity log, and also how to wipe your web history and how to stop Facebook from tracking you.
Clear Your Facebook Search History
We search for things on Facebook from time to time, such as looking for a page or company, a new friend, videos, and so on. Sometimes it can be a bit embarrassing, or maybe you just don’t want people to know what you’ve been searching for if they ever get their hands on your phone or access to your computer.
This is where clearing your search history will come in handy, and it is a relatively quick and painless process.
Desktop
- Open Facebook in your browser
- Click on the search bar at the top
- Click the “X” next to the search item to clear it
Alternative, there are more advanced options that you can choose. To access those options, follow the steps above, but click “Edit” once the dropdown list appears. From here, you will be able to see what you’ve searched for on what date. This will show you everything you’ve searched for since you started using Facebook. Click “Clear Searches” at the top if you want to delete all of it.
Mobile
- Launch the Facebook app
- Tap the magnifying glass icon at the top
- Tap Edit
- Click on the “X” next to the search item to delete it, or tap “Clear Searches” to clear everything.
Delete Your Facebook Location History
One of the features of Facebook is the ability to to help users find nearby WiFi hotspots or find nearby friends. As useful as these features sound, at least on paper, it can also feel a bit creepy as we’re sure that there are some who might be uncomfortable with Facebook knowing where you are.
If you’d rather not have Facebook keep a log on your location history, then deleting it might be a pretty good idea.
Desktop
- Open Facebook in your browser
- Go to your profile by clicking your profile photo
- Click Activity Log
- Click More
- Click Location History
- Click the three dots icon and select either “Delete this day” or “Delete all location history”
Mobile
- Launch the Facebook app
- Tap the three line icon to the bottom right corner of the app
- Scroll down and select Privacy Shortcuts
- Select Manage your location settings
- Select View Your Location History (you’ll be prompted to re-enter your Facebook password)
- Tap the three dots icon and select either “Delete this day” or “Delete all location history”
Off-Facebook Activity
In 2018, in response to the various privacy-related scandals the company has been embroiled in, Facebook announced plans for a new feature called “Off-Facebook Activity”. This would essentially allow users to manage the data Facebook collects on you from other sites and apps associated with Facebook.
For example, with all the default settings turned on, this is how Facebook collects information on you to deliver things like more personalized ads.
However, if you’re not comfortable with this, this new tool will let you better manage apps and services connected to your Facebook account, as well as give you the option on how to manage your Facebook activity moving forwards, such as by disabling it completely.
- Launch Facebook in your browser
- Click the arrow icon
- Select Settings & Privacy > Settings
- Click Your Facebook Information
- Under “Off-Facebook Activity”, click View
- Click “Clear History”, this will clear all activity history from your Facebook account, although as Facebook notes, this could result in you being logged out of certain apps and websites
If you’d rather not use this “nuclear” option of clearing all Facebook history, you can manage individual activity by clicking “Manage Your Off-Facebook Activity”. This lets you control Facebook activity app by app, website by website. This can be a more tedious process, but might be useful if there are only certain apps or websites that you’d rather not have track you.
You also have the option of managing future Off-Facebook Activity, meaning that moving forwards, these settings will let Facebook know what you want it to do. By default, Facebook will still continue to track and collect data even after you’ve cleared the history, so if you want it turned off for good, then click “Manage Future Activity” and turning the toggle off will prevent future collection of data.
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