What you don’t know about how Facebook uses your data
Facebook has been called on the carpet for how it has failed to protect the personal data of its users. But lost in the drama of congressional hearings is an understanding of the extent to which Facebook meticulously scrutinizes the minutiae of those users’ online lives.
Facebook’s tracking stretches far beyond the company’s wellknown targeted advertisements. And details that people often readily volunteer — age, employer, relationship status, likes and location — are just the start.
The social media giant also tracks users on other sites and apps. It also collects so-called biometric facial data without users’ explicit “opt-in” consent, and helps video-game companies target “high-value players” who are likely to spend on in-app purchases.
The sifting of users gets into personal — even confidential — matters. The company has allowed marketers to target users who may have an interest in various health issues, like the 110,000 Facebook users who were listed under the category “diagnosis with HIV or AIDS,” the 51,000 people listed under erectile dysfunction, and 460,000 users listed under “binge-eating disorder awareness,” according to 2015 data submitted as an exhibit in a lawsuit. Facebook says it has since removed those “targeting options” and does not create targeted ad audiences involving users’ medical conditions.
“Facebook can learn almost anything about you by using artificial intelligence to analyze your behavior,” said Peter Eckersley, chief computer scientist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights nonprofit. “That knowledge turns out be perfect both for advertising and propaganda. Will Facebook ever prevent itself from learning people’s political views, or other sensitive facts about them?”
This week, Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, sat for two days of testimony on Capitol Hill regarding how his company conducts its business and how it has failed to protect the privacy of its users.
The hearings were spurred by revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a voter-profiling company, had inappropriately harvested the detailed personal information of up to 87 million Facebook