Did you know there are new Facebook Ad Preferences located within your Facebook settings? Here’s a little background on why Facebook released this new privacy control changes and what you should do to prevent unwanted advertisements.

Why New Facebook Ad Preferences Settings

Earlier this week, Facebook announced new privacy control settings for their 2.2 billion users. This headline news comes shortly after the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal. Cambridge Analytica, a “data-driven” political advertising agency, allegedly purchased Facebook data from Global Science Research, a company founded by a Facebook employee, Joseph Chancellor. Chancellor was then working for Facebook as a quantitative social psychologist.

In light of this data breach and the public’s outcry for data security, Facebook released a new setting currently called Facebook Ad Preferences.

Find Facebook Ad Preferences on Facebook’s Mobile App

To find your Facebook Ad Preferences, go to your Facebook mobile app, click on the hamburger button, then click on Privacy Shortcuts and then Data Policy. Scroll down until you see a button called Facebook Ads Controls. Once there you will find your Facebook Ad Preference options.

Facebook Ad Preferences Options

Facebook Ad Preferences privacy control settings allow you to organize your Facebook Interests and the advertisers that you have interacted with in the past. You can also control what personal data that Facebook advertisers are able to use and your Facebook ad settings. Facebook ad settings allow you to enable or disable the following:

• Ads based on your use of websites and apps
• Ads on apps and websites that are not on Facebook’s network
• Ads based on your social actions

How to Organize Facebook Ad Preferences

Organize your Facebook Ad Preferences to sync with your purchasing habits. Yes, some of you may be against online advertising all together; however, there are benefits to allow advertisers to communicate with you. More on this topic later. For now, if you’re completely against all advertisements directed to you, remove all interests, advertisers and shut off your data sharing settings.

If you are open to Facebook advertisers directing messages to you, remove any and all topics that you are not interested in. You can do this by clicking on “See all your interests”, then clicking on the three dots next to the interest you would like to remove and clicking “Remove Interest”.

If you want to see examples of how Facebook advertisers are using your information to market to you, click on “View ads with this interest”. See the unicorn example below.

At the end of the day, you’re in charge of all the data you present to the online world. Consider everything public and organize your privacy settings according to your personal preferences. Check back for more updates on this topic.