--- description: Facebook says it will tell you why it's showing you a specific ad and let you modify what it thinks to be your interests. title: Facebook Will Let You Edit What It Knows About You image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Facebook Will Let You Edit What It Knows About You  by [Noah Rayman](/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 12, 2014 12:24 PM CUT  by [Noah Rayman](/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 12, 2014 12:24 PM CUT In a move intended to make its advertising more relevant, [Facebook says](http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/06/making-ads-better-and-giving-people-more-control-over-the-ads-they-see/ "undefined") it will soon let you ask why it’s showing you a specific ad as well as tweak the list of what the company believes to be your interests. If you’re seeing a Facebook ad for Coca Cola, for example, you can click it and select “Why am I seeing this?” Facebook will then tell you why it showed you that ad— maybe you “liked” other soda ads, for example. You can then choose to wipe that attribute about yourself and also scan through and edit all of the attributes that Facebook thinks describe you best. Advocates of the change will say it means the ads you see will hopefully be more interesting to you. But it’s also good for Facebook, because the change will help Facebook connect businesses and potential customers, making its ads all the more valuable. You won’t be seeing fewer ads — just more relevant ads. Facebook, which announced the changes in a Thursday [blog post](http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/06/making-ads-better-and-giving-people-more-control-over-the-ads-they-see/ "undefined"), also said it will begin serving up ads based on information collected about your travels around the Internet outside Facebook’s borders. The social media company already gathers a plethora of information about you from websites and apps, so it’s not surprising that it wants to use that information to show you more valuable ads. If you’re concerned about your privacy, you can opt-out of letting Facebook view your web activity [here](http://www.aboutads.info/choices/#completed "undefined"). Hear about the changes from Facebook in the video above. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2863533/facebook-ads/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2863533/facebook-ads/"},"headline":"Facebook Will Let You Edit What It Knows About You","datePublished":"2014-06-12T12:24:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:02:30.232Z","description":"Facebook has a file on you, and now you'll be able to see it and edit it.","url":"https://time.com/2863533/facebook-ads/","keywords":["Tech","Social Media","Internet","facebook","privacy","Companies","advertisements"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2863533/facebook-ads/","name":"Facebook Will Let You Edit What It Knows About You"}}]}] ```