Facebook Privacy Settings Freeport Residents Should Consider

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Facebook Privacy Settings Freeport Residents Should Consider
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Facebook is tracking your browsing through a hidden bypass, collecting health data despite privacy promises, and charging for a subscription that adds no privacy features. A new cybersecurity audit lays out the settings worth considering.

What the Audit Found

The Code320 red team audit identified several major privacy threats that affect every Facebook user, including the thousands of Walton County residents who rely on the platform as their primary source of community information:

The Meta Pixel bypass. If you have the Facebook or Instagram app installed on your phone, Meta can track your web browsing across other sites — even in a private browser — by using a localhost port on your device. No setting in your Facebook account can stop this. The apps themselves are the tracking device.

Off-Facebook activity harvesting. Facebook collects data from partner apps and websites about what you do when you’re not on Facebook. That includes shopping, health apps, and news sites. Even if you’ve never linked these accounts to Facebook, the data still flows through embedded trackers.

Health data collection. A jury found Meta liable for collecting private reproductive health data through the Flo period-tracking app. The app developer promised it would never share that data. The Meta SDK embedded in the app sent it to Facebook anyway.

Smart glasses with a flaw. The recording indicator light on Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses can be disabled for about $60. Someone wearing these glasses could record you without any visible sign, and there is no Facebook setting that can prevent it.

Five Settings to Change Right Now

These take about ten minutes and make the biggest difference:

1. Set future posts to Friends Only. Go to Settings > Privacy > “Who can see your future posts” and change it from Public to Friends. Every public post is indexable, shareable, and harvestable by anyone — including Meta’s AI training pipelines.

2. Turn off facial recognition. Go to Settings > Face Recognition and set it to No. This prevents Facebook from suggesting tags when you appear in photos, though it doesn’t delete the template they’ve already built.

3. Disconnect off-Facebook activity. Go to Settings > Off-Facebook Activity, click Disconnect, select “Disconnect all activity,” then toggle “Disconnect future activity” to On. This stops the flow of data from partner apps and websites. It won’t delete what Meta already collected, but it turns off the incoming fire hose.

4. Enable login alerts. Go to Settings > Security and Login and turn on notifications for unrecognized logins. While you’re there, review “Where you’re logged in” and close any sessions you don’t recognize.

5. Remove your phone number from your profile. Go to Settings > Mobile and remove it. Your phone number is a unique identifier Meta uses for ad targeting and friend suggestions. If you need it for two-factor authentication, keep it in the 2FA section, but get it off your public profile.

What About Facebook Plus?

Meta recently launched Facebook Plus at $3.99 per month. Here’s what it includes: story rewatch counts, extended stories, custom app icons, and profile customization.

Here’s what it does not include: any additional privacy settings, any additional security features, any reduction in ads, any limits on data collection, or any opt-out from AI training.

Facebook Plus is a vanity package. Paying $3.99 a month does not buy you privacy. Meta has made clear through its actions — localhost port bypasses, expiring opt-outs, and SDK data harvesting — that it views your data as revenue, not something you should be able to pay to protect.

The Limits of Settings

It’s important to be honest about what these changes can and can’t do. Turning off tracking settings reduces the data flowing from you to Meta, but it doesn’t stop it entirely. The Meta Pixel bypass means the Facebook and Instagram apps on your phone can correlate your anonymous web browsing with your real identity regardless of your browser settings. The only way to stop that is to delete the apps.

The AI training opt-out button that Meta provides expires periodically. The company has acknowledged it cannot technically separate opted-out data from opted-in data once it enters the training pipeline. That button exists for regulators, not for you.

For the complete step-by-step walkthrough covering every privacy setting on Facebook, WhatsApp, and connected apps, read the full guide at code320.com.

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