Protect your privacy – don’t be a Facebook happy slave
Along with 2.9 million other New Zealanders, last week I got an inapp alert from Facebook saying it was time to review my privacy settings.
The AI-driven process took me through my settings around personal data that Facebook can use for ad targeting, whether I’ll agree to facial recognition, what my political affiliations are, my interests and my relationship status.
This current process kicked off mid -019 as Facebook prepared for the introduction of the new GDPR data protection rules in Europe.
The review reminder came through on the global Data Protection Day. The same day that Facebook decided to expose its ‘‘Off-Facebook Activity’’ tracking tool to the world.
The new tool lets you see how Facebook follows you even when you’re not on its owned properties such as Instagram and Messenger.
If you haven’t already, you should jump on to Facebook, choose ‘‘settings’’ and then ‘‘your Facebook information’’, and then ‘‘Off-Facebook Activity’’ option on the right. You might get a surprise how many outfits share your information with Facebook.
In my case I discovered that 382 organisations and businesses share my personal interaction information with the social network. Many of these didn’t surprise me – businesses like Air New Zealand, Stuff and LinkedIn.
So for instance Air New Zealand might let Facebook know I’d booked a flight to Napier, which would then allow the social network to start delivering me ads for accommodation in Hawke’s Bay.
But a few others came out of left field including NZTA, New Zealand Post and the IRD. It’s just not clear to me why IRD would want to pass on my interactions with them to Facebook. I’d hazard a guess that a few senior folks at the likes of IRD and Post might have similar questions.
Facebook has been promising the tool for two years, ever since their privacy nightmare started to unfold just weeks after Mark Zuckerberg announced that 2018 was the year they would ‘‘fix Facebook’’.
If you dig deep enough you can also find a new tool with ‘‘Clear History’’ functionality. Effectively it allows users to put a wall between their Facebook account and their other offline activity.
Think of it like clearing your cookies or browsing history, but instead it clears your off-Facebook activity. Something I reckon everyone should consider doing.
Mind you, it’s not really clearing. It’s just anonymising. If you do decide to hit the button, Facebook will still retain your data, it just won’t have identifying information to know that it’s you.
Tracking people as they move around the web is nothing new, it’s been possible ever since the first cookies (tracking code) were placed on a flaccid 286 PC nervously dog-paddling through the primordial digital soup on a dialup modem.
Facebook have just taken it to unimaginable levels by encouraging personal sharing of information, indexing that information and then building an advertising tool that injected microscopic granularity into targeting.
A tool that allows me as an advertiser to target classical music listening, hybriddriving environmentalists in Fendalton.
Reactions to last week’s new privacy tools have divided into two camps – fans and foes. The fans say it’s a lot less creepy and a meaningful step forward in Facebook’s stated journey to give individuals their identity back.
The foes say it’s super creepy. A sobering smack in the face as to how much the social network monitors us. They ask, if this is what they are prepared to come clean with, how much more data mining is going on under the hood?
I look at it a different way. It’s not more or less creepy, it’s just so bloody hard to find that most people will give up long before they harness it properly. And that’s a shame.
First, the data privacy checkup message fails to clearly flag the existence of the new off-Facebook activity tool nor the clear-history button. So most people will sail through the privacy checkup oblivious of the ability to see who’s sending their info to Facebook.
Second, to find the new functionality you have to go three layers deep in the ‘‘my settings’’ part of your Facebook account to find the offsite list. And even deeper to clear the history.
Third, the process of customising your privacy controls is laboriously slow. Perhaps even intentionally slow. Such that you find yourself giving up halfway through.
Finally, there is a thermonuclear option called ‘‘manage future activity’’ which is hidden deeper still in the options. Though even with that option you will still be tracked, just at a much reduced level.
Taken as a whole, the new measures are so tough to find that you have to wonder if it’s a genuine attempt to do good or just window-dressing to appease the regulators. My guess is that most people will choose to remain happy slaves rather than conscious consumers.
Please don’t be one of them.
Mike ‘‘MOD’’ O’Donnell is a professional director, advisor and facilitator. His Twitter handle is @modsta and he’s not keen on happy slaves.