Facebook Will Let You Edit What It Knows About You

In a move intended to make its advertising more relevant, Facebook says 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, 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.

Hear about the changes from Facebook in the video above.