Many folks are aware that Facebook’s main purpose is not to help you connect and chat with your friends, but instead to collect data about you.
And that data is the secret sauce which allows Facebook to provide a mechanism for delivering incredibly targeted advertising. Facebook isn’t really a social network, it’s an advertising company.
Yet despite many people are aware of this, most find it difficult to picture just how much Facebook knows about them.
Sign up to our newsletterSecurity news, advice, and tips.
Enter the free end-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal, which is well-regarded for its focus on privacy and security.
The team at Signal explained on its blog this week how it wanted to shed some light on Facebook methods.
Their simpler but oh-so-clever idea? To run targeted ads on the Instagram that directly show to the user *how* they were singled out for attention.
You got this ad because you’re a newlywed pilates instructor and you’re cartoon crazy.
This ad used your location to see you’re in La Jolla.
You’re into parenting blogs and thinking about LGBTQ adoption.
However, Signal’s plans were foiled, and it shared a screenshot showing that its ad account had been disabled – suggesting Facebook had taken the drastic step to prevent users from finding out how their data could be used to target them with ads:
“Facebook is more than willing to sell visibility into people’s lives, unless it’s to tell people about how ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
