It is 2026, and once more the digital world has changed. We are no longer shocked by data breaches, and digital hygiene has become so normal it is almost like brushing our teeth. But to be honest, it can sometimes feel like a full-time job to keep up with Meta’s constantly changing interface. Just as you think you have completed securing your profile, a new update is released, or a new feature changes your settings.
Facebook is still an important platform for interacting with people we know personally and communities, but at the same time it is a huge data gathering system. The risks have become greater now. Considering that advertisements driven by AI are becoming increasingly targeted and biometric data integration is becoming more common, it is very important to be aware of what you are sharing and with whom.
It’s not just about hiding your birthday or removing yourself from photos. It’s about being the master of your online presence. You will learn 2026’s social media interface changes with us, make an inventory of your external partners, and keep your life away from the public eye.
Understanding the Privacy Center
The privacy and security controls have been merged into a single place now called “Privacy Center”. It has been a challenge for average users to set their privacy preferences when meta settings were spread in different places. Although the 2026 update tries to make this process easy, at first glance it is still confusing.
To access the Privacy Center, navigate to your Settings & Privacy menu. Here, you will find a dashboard divided into clear categories: Sharing, Security, Ad Preferences, and Data Usage. The goal of this center is to provide a “privacy checkup” experience that guides you through the most critical settings without requiring you to dig through sub-menus.
Upon entering the center, your first encounter will be the Privacy Checkup tool which is essentially a checklist. This tool will help you to review and control who can see your posts and profile, and the apps you have given permission to access your data. Doing this checkup is advisable at least once every month to be sure that no settings have changed without your knowledge.
Managing Visibility: Who Sees What?
The essence of Facebook privacy is to decide who is allowed to access your content. For example, you would like your friends from college to see your vacation pictures but your boss or a stranger should not.
Post Audience Settings
Your default setting should be Friends for future posts. On the off chance that you keep it Public, then anyone on the internet can come across your posts. To open audience and visibility settings, simply go to Settings > Audience and Visibility. You will also have the option to restrict the audience for past posts there, thus, transforming your previous public posts into “Friends Only” with just a single click. This can help you scrub your online history easily.
Profile Information
Potential profile visitors may mine your email address, phone number, and friends list if these are available in your “About” section. You are advised to put your friends list under the Only Me setting. Thus you will not be easily targeted if hackers or scammers decide to come after you via your friends.
Tagging and Timeline Review
Enabling Timeline Review is one of the most potent methods for deciding which contents are associated with your account. Every time someone tries to tag you in a post, it will only appear after you have given the approval since the feature modifies the default settings.
Data and Location Tracking
Your location history provides a detailed map of your daily life—where you sleep, where you work, and where you hang out. Facebook uses this data to serve hyper-local ads and content, but for many, this feels invasive.
Head to Settings > Your Information > Location. Here, you can see a log of the primary locations associated with your account. You can turn off “Location Services” entirely, which prevents the app from accessing your GPS data in the background. If you are concerned about your digital footprint or want to access content restricted to specific regions, you might consider privacy tools that mask your IP address. Using a reputable VPN service or following trusted privacy guides from Cybernews on how to change location on Facebook can add an extra layer of anonymity and reduce precise tracking of your physical movements.
Beyond location, review the Off-Facebook Activity tool. This feature shows you which external websites and apps are sending data back to Facebook. You might be surprised to see that your online banking or shopping apps are sharing information with Meta. You can clear this history and turn off future off-Facebook activity tracking to sever this link.
Third-Party Apps and Permissions
Most probably you have once or several times used Facebook login to get into other websites or apps like Spotify, Airbnb, quizzes on the internet, etc. All these connections are potential entrances through which your personal data may be exposed.
Go to Settings > Apps and Websites. The apps will be displayed under three main groups-Active, Expired, and Removed.
- Active: This app list means that these apps still have access to the information that you allowed (usually your friends list and email).
- Expired: These apps were once allowed access, but since you have not used them for the last 90 days, the access has been revoked.
It’s really important that you go through this list carefully once in a while. Revoke permission for applications that are old, unused, or unfamiliar. Besides, deleting an app gives you the opportunity to remove any photos or posts that the app has made on your behalf thus completely removing his/her traces from your timeline.
Ad Preferences and Personalization
You are a commodity on Facebook because the platform is free. The advertising companies pay the platform to get an opportunity to advertise their products to you based on the interest, demographic, and behavior data they have learned about you. Even though you cannot get rid of ads totally, you can still limit the types of ads to be more specific.
Go to Ad Preferences. There you see “Interests” which are tags that Facebook has assigned to you based on your activities. For example, your chosen interests could be “Soccer,” “Small Business,” or “Travel.” You can choose to unselect these interests so that ads will be less targeted to you.
The main concern to me is a look at Ad Settings. You are able to disable the “Ads based on data from partners” feature. It prevents Facebook from utilizing data collected by other websites (the shoes you looked at on Amazon) to serve ads to you in the news feed.
Advanced Security Tools
Whereas privacy controls establish a limit for the visibility of your data, security settings assure that no one else, apart from you, will be able to login to the account. It is no longer sufficient in 2026 to protect your password with a basic word since hacking methods have become very advanced.
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
In case you are not familiar, 2FA is a security system that is triggered as soon as a user logs in a device which hasn’t been registered before. The method demands another passcode which is a secondary code sent via text or authentication app. For security reasons, it is advised that you link your account to an authenticator app such as Google Authenticator or Duo since messages with codes can be stolen in case of SIM swap.
Login Alerts
Set up alerts to be notified if your account is accessed from a device or location that’s not recognized by you. With this security setting, you will be informed instantly through email or a Facebook notification, thus, enabling you to take action immediately by locking the account.
Maintaining Your Digital Fortress
Facebook privacy isn’t just a one-time thing that you can do on the side. Given that the platform is constantly changing and coming up with new features such as the ones for AI-generated content tools and the metaverse we have witnessed this year, default settings won’t always be on the side of privacy but rather will lean towards sharing openly.
Thanks to your efforts following this manual, you have almost gotten your data back under your control. Be sure to visit your Privacy Center regularly and keep checking your third-party app list. Also, exercise caution with new features that want you to hand over more permissions and some of the time data. After all, your data is probably the most valuable asset you have digitally; hence, you should take good care of it.