You can now block Instagram from tracking your web activity

If you’re on Instagram, you might want to check out a new feature called “Activity Off-Meta Technologies,” which allows users to stop Instagram from collecting data about other apps and websites you visit.

On Tuesday, Meta announced in a blog post that users have a little more control over how Instagram tracks their web activity. You can also download data from your Facebook and Instagram accounts at the same time. Additionally, the company expanded two privacy controls on Instagram that were previously only available on Facebook:

• Users can now manage “how information other companies send to us is linked to your Facebook and Instagram accounts.”

• Users can “review the companies that share data with Meta, unlink specific companies to further personalize your experience, or delete this data entirely.”

Activity Off Meta Technologies feature
Photo credit: Meta

“We’ve heard that people want to be able to easily make decisions across multiple apps at once. Moving these settings to Accounts Center aims to address this issue by allowing people to choose their settings for all of our apps at once,” Meta said in a press release. “And for people who prefer to have different settings for each app, that’s still an option too.”

All new features are available in the Settings menu in Account Center.

Privacy is by no means a given on the Internet. But as more privacy laws make their way through government agencies in countries around the world, social media companies have begun to comply — and even make changes before the government intervenes.