Facebook announced today that it was going to give users the ability to view the lists of likes and interests that they keep on us during our travels through the internet; the purpose of this is to provide more targeted ads for us to see (and be annoyed with).

Tim mentions in his article that this is nothing new, which it certainly isn't, but there is something that you can do to further stop the sharing of this information and it is not only limited to Facebook - Opting out via the Digital Advertising Alliance website. Now this doesn't actually stop company ABC from collecting the information, it is meant to stop the sharing.

According to the neat little article in Ubergizmo, you can opt out by effectively telling Facebook, and other companies that employ similar practices, that you don’t want ads served on the basis of your interests. Those who have AdBlocker Plus installed, or any other plugin that disables cookies, will have to disable it first before they can opt out.

The opening statement from the Digital Advertising Alliance website briefly explains that some of the ads you receive on Web pages are customized based on predictions about your interests generated from your visits over time and across different Web sites. This type of ad customization — sometimes called "online behavioral" or "interest-based" advertising — is enabled through your computer browser and browser cookies. Such online advertising helps support the free content, products and services you get online.

Using the tools on their page, you can opt out from receiving interest-based advertising from some or all of our participating companies, and that list consists of 348 companies. Not a bad start.