Have you ever wondered why you suddenly got Airbnb ads on Facebook right after browsing some Airbnb places on your iPhone? Did you start seeing travel place suggestions on Facebook after checking out some tourism packages on TripAdvisor? No, Facebook isn’t using the device microphone to listen to your conversation. The social giant is using the off-Facebook activity option that allows partner apps and websites to share activity data with Facebook. If you are uncomfortable with it, here’s how you can disable it.

What this means is that websites and services can share your browsing data and activity with Facebook so that the latter can display more relevant ads. If you are not comfortable with this, you can disable ‘Off-Facebook Activity’ sharing to prevent this from happening.

Read: The Ultimate Guide to Managing Facebook Privacy on Your iPhone or iPad

Prevent Facebook from Tracking You Across iPhone Apps and Services

Facebook has buried the option deep inside the app. You can clear the activity history that Facebook has collected so far and turn off the option from the same menu. Follow the steps below to disable the tracking behavior on Facebook.

Step 1: Open the Facebook app on the iPhone.

Step 2: Go to the More menu at the bottom right corner.

Step 3: Navigate to Settings & Privacy -> Settings.

Step 4: Scroll down to Your Facebook information and select the off-Facebook activity menu.

Step 5: From the following menu, select the Clear History and press the Clear History button from the pop-up menu. All your activity history will be disconnected from your account.

Step 6: Tap on the Back button and select the Manage your off-Facebook activity option.

Step 7: Here, you will see the list of apps and websites that are sharing activity data with Facebook. You will also notice the last time Facebook requested your activity data from the partners. Tap on the three-dot menu at the upper right corner.

Step 8: Select Manage Future Activity from the bottom pop-up menu.

Step 9: Facebook will explain how they use your off-Facebook activity data. Tap on the Manage Future Activity option below.

Step 10: Disable the Future off-Facebook activity option from the following menu.

Remember, even after clearing off-Facebook activity history from the Settings menu, the company will continue to receive your activity from the businesses and organizations that you visit in the future. Clearing your history may log you out of some apps and websites. Also, you will still see the same number of ads. Facebook will continue to use ad preferences and actions to show you relevant ads.