Where are you shopping? Which friends are near you? Which places have you visited? Facebook knows it! How you can prevent this is written here.

As our cooperation partner checked4you reports, you can use the Facebook app to indicate where you are for each post. This can be great to share this information. In order for this to be possible, the app must access your cell phone's location tracking.

If you allow this, Facebook will learn a lot of other things and can use them accordingly. Two examples:

Where are you shopping?

It should no longer be a secret that Facebook recognizes which websites you browse and shop on. But the app can also determine which store you go shopping “offline”.

Companies that place ads on Facebook can indicate the location of their store and, based on your cell phone's location, evaluate how many customers came to their store after viewing the advertisement. The link between your location and advertising can also be done via WiFi. More about this here .

Which of your friends is nearby?

With Nearby Friends, the Facebook app can show you which of your friends are not far from you. However, you first have to activate the function in the app settings. Once you have done this, you can switch off “Friends Nearby” at any time.

But be careful: Once you have used the function, Facebook permanently records your location, even when the app is turned off, says Facebook in an explanation of the location history. Your whereabouts will no longer be sent to your friends, but will be recorded in your activity log. And Facebook can evaluate them. There is also a similar function on Snapchat .

Block access to location, disable location history

In the settings of your smartphone you can prohibit the Facebook app from accessing the location or the location service (usually in the “Data protection” menu item). This works with iOS, Windows and Android from version 6 (Marshmallow).

Unfortunately, with older Android versions you can only generally deactivate the location service to protect yourself. security apps locate your smartphone if it is lost, also have problems .

Our tip: Avoid the Facebook app and use the network via a browser app (m.facebook.com).

In some versions, Facebook itself also offers you the option of blocking the recognition of locations. To do this, open the app's settings (three horizontal lines at the top right on Android) and scroll down to Settings . After you open it, tap Location (in older versions it's called Location or Security and Location ) and turn off Location History . But that just means that the network doesn't permanently record your location and enter it into your activity log.

The app continues to track your location for other purposes, such as “so you can find nearby places,” it said in a statement. So if you want to protect yourself properly, this setting is relatively pointless.

For iOS and Android version 6 (Marshmallow) or later, you must deactivate location access via the operating system. On Android, go to Settings , tap Apps and select the Facebook app. Then open permissions and turn location . On iOS, the click path is as follows: Settings , Privacy , Location Services and you can then Facebook and set the setting.

And if you've previously enabled location tracking and want to know where Facebook has accompanied you, check out your location history on this Facebook page .

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Confusion about “People You May Know”

An article in the online magazine Fusion in June 2016 initially suggested that Facebook was also using location tracking to suggest new friends among “people you may know.”

The author of the article reports on a man who was in a self-help group and the next day another participant in the group was suggested as a friend. Normally you are anonymous in such groups. But because Facebook requires its users to use their real names, anonymity would suddenly be lost.

Facebook lists some of the criteria by which strangers are suggested as new friends : mutual friends, matching educational and professional information, shared networks, imported contacts and many other factors.

But location is not a factor, a Facebook spokeswoman explains to checked4you: "We do not use location data, such as the location of the cell phone or location information that users add to their profile to suggest 'people you may know'."

Regardless of whether you believe this statement or not: the possibility of using your location for such purposes should be enough to prohibit the app from tracking your location.

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