Here's how to turn off Facebook tracking on your devices

STATEN ISLAND (TCA) — Facing backlash after data on millions of users was used by a company working for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Brexit vote, questions were raised on the security of data Facebook collects on its users for advertisers.

The political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica was suspended by Facebook following the discovery.

According to a Facebook news release, Facebook found that data was being passed to Cambridge Analytica to serve political ads.

If you’re worried about your information being shared, here’s how you can find out what Facebook knows about you, what it’s sharing with advertisers and how to stop Facebook from tracking you.

CHECK YOUR ACCOUNT

To find out what Facebook knows about you, log into Facebook and go to a page called “Your ad preferences.” You can find this page through this url, https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences, or by clicking the small arrow on the top right of the blue bar. Click “settings” and then “ads.”

Depending on what pages you “like,” Facebook will show advertisements based on your interests in different categories including business, hobbies, news, entertainment, food and travel.

Facebook and Instagram both track your location, using location data to show ads from advertisers trying to reach people in or near a specific place.

Facebook gets this information from various sources, including: where you connect to the internet, through IP address on computers, tablets or phones; where you use your phone, through GPS and location services; and your location from your Facebook and Instagram profiles.

WHAT YOU DO ONLINE

The social media website also tracks what you do on the internet. Additionally, each time you use Facebook to log into apps on your phone, it tracks that information.

After Facebook collects information about what you do online, Facebook builds a profile about you, which you can see by clicking on “your information” and then “your categories.” Facebook shares this information with advertisers.

This information allows advertisers to target ads to people with similar interests, including people with the same birthday month, where you live and what type of technology a person uses.

You can tell Facebook to not share your information with some advertisers, but the only sure way to make sure it doesn’t track any activities is to stop using it. That includes other apps Facebook owns, including Instagram.

Users should remember Facebook is free because it makes its money by showing advertisements.