Facebook shuts down ad-targeting product

NEW YORK — Facebook says it is shutting down a type of advertising product that allowed marketers to use data from people’s lives outside of Facebook to target them on the platform.

The information includes categories like home ownership and purchase history and is collected by some of the world’s largest data brokers such as Acxiom, Epsilon and Experian.

Facebook product marketing director Graham Mudd said Wednesday that shutting down the feature over the next six months “will help improve people’s privacy on Facebook.”

The program allowed specific targeting of audiences using offline data about them in the U.S., Brazil, France, Germany, the U.K.

Facebook is also giving its privacy tools a makeover as it reels from criticisms over its data practices and faces tighter European regulations in the coming months.

The changes won’t affect Facebook’s privacy policies or the types of data it gathers about its users. But the company said it hopes its 2.2 billion users will have an easier time navigating its complex and often confusing privacy and security settings. In other developments: • Playboy Enterprises announced Wednesday that it’s pulling its Facebook presence as the privacy scandal enveloping the social media service continues to grow.

Playboy said it’s been difficult anyway to “express our values” because of Facebook’s strict content and policy guidelines, which include restrictions on nudity. Playboy says the alleged data mismanagement is the last straw. • Facebook is being sued by three U.S. users who downloaded the platform’s messaging app Messenger on their Android phones.

The three users filed their federal lawsuit Tuesday in San Francisco, alleging that Facebook improperly collected their phone call and text message logs via Messenger and then monetized the data for advertising purposes.