Facebook also has data on non-users
Company says it can compile information on people even when they’re logged off
Last week during his Congressional testimony, Mark Zuckerberg said he’d follow up on questions from lawmakers for which he had no or incomplete answers. This week, Facebook explains how it collects data from users even when they’re logged off, Mark Zuckerberg made good on his promise to expound on data collection after his Congressional testimony.
and gathers information from non-users, too.
In a blog post Monday,
Facebook said it tracks users and non-users for the following purposes: to provide services, and to improve products, services and security on Facebook.
And David Baser, product management director for the company, made sure to point out that Facebook is not alone in doing this: Other tech companies do similar tracking.
“Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn all have similar Like and Share buttons to help people share things on their services,” Baser wrote. “Google has a popular analytics service. And Amazon, Google and Twitter all offer login features. These companies — and many others —
also offer advertising services. In fact, most websites and apps send the same information to multiple companies each time you visit them.”
But because Facebook is embroiled in a privacy and security mess after the revelation that data consulting firm Cambridge
Analytica accessed information of up to 87 million Facebook users without their permission, it’s the company that’s having to do most of the explaining. Besides, Facebook’s reach — 2.2 billion users worldwide — dwarfs that of most of the other companies Baser mentions.
In his post, Baser explained in detail how Facebook gathers information about you — it’s basically a reminder of why nobody
should be shocked when something you might have been looking up elsewhere then shows up as an ad on Facebook. Hint: It’s not magic.
“If you visit a lot of sports sites that use our services, you might see sports-related stories higher up in your News Feed,” Baser wrote. “If you’ve looked at travel sites, we can show you ads for hotels and rental cars.”
He noted that Facebook users can opt out of seeing ads on the social network based on their other online activity.
As for tracking non-users in the name of security, Baser gave more examples for why the company does this than its CEO did during last week’s testimony: to help identify bots or “bad actors,” and to make sure login attempts are genuine.