Keep Facebook From Spying On You With Firefox’s New Extension

Keep Facebook From Spying On You With Firefox’s New Extension

You can’t stop Facebook from tracking everything you do on the social network (unless you delete your account, of course), but there is a way to stop it from tracking where you go once you leave the company’s walled garden. All you need is Mozilla’s new Firefox browser extension: Facebook Container.

Photo: Max Pixel

Facebook Container restricts Facebook to its own sandboxed browser tab so it can’t see all the other stuff you do on the internet. That means Facebook won’t know what you buy on Amazon, even if you end up on Amazon thanks to a link shared on Facebook. The extension also blocks you from logging in to other sites with your Facebook credentials, another big way the company gathers data from around the web.

Setting up Mozilla’s new extension is easy. Just download and install the new extension. Once it’s active, it will automatically log you out of Facebook. The next time you sign in to the social network, you should see that the Facebook tab in your browser is highlighted in blue.

Facebook will work the same way it always has, but clicking any link to a site beyond the social network will load in a new tab outside of the container – to keep Facebook from tracking where you go.

Keep Facebook From Spying On You With Firefox’s New Extension

Screenshot: Mozilla

If you use the Facebook Share button on another website, that action loads in a Facebook Container tab, so the information about what you share will go back to Facebook. The extension may also block you from logging into other sites through your Facebook account, and embedded Facebook features including the Like button and comments sections on some other sites may not work either.

That might a little annoying at first, but it’s a small price to pay for some extra privacy. Seeing the rest of the internet stripped from Facebook’s influence will also remind you just how far the company’s grip extends beyond its own platform.


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