In the world of online advertising, there are two main types: the general type, which aims to generate demand for a given product, and the targeted type, which is supposed to detect demand for specific products and connect it with corresponding sales. In order for the latter to be accurate, it needs user data. Obviously, a lot of data. And according to one researcher, sometimes those involved in the advertising industry are quite reluctant to stop collecting your information.
In a lengthy post on Medium, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California in the field of computer science says that Facebook still sends location-based ads even when location information on a device is turned off.
For privacy reasons, she doesn't want the social network to know where she is or where she's going, so she diligently disabled all the location tracking features she could find on her phone's operating system, on the Facebook app itself, and on the Facebook website, where she hasn't listed her place of residence on her profile.
According to Facebook, you'll only get ads based on your location if you let it collect your location history. And the site gives users a tool to completely erase that history at any time. So an empty history log should result in no more location-based ads, right? Unfortunately for Assistant Professor Aleksandra Korolova, that doesn't seem to have worked!
Her efforts to keep her location hidden from Facebook have been unsuccessful: “I haven’t uploaded photos to Facebook in years, I don’t post content with my location, and I don’t check in. I don’t share my location on WhatsApp, Instagram, or Facebook Messenger, and I don’t search for places on Facebook. Yet, location-based ads continue to appear using my actual location.”
As Korolova points out, Facebook is very clear on this issue. It explicitly states: “People are in control of the recent location information they share with Facebook and will only see ads based on their recent location if location services are enabled on their phone.”
When Facebook was asked about the Medium report, a spokesperson said: “Facebook doesn’t use WiFi data to determine your location for ads if you have location services turned off. We use IP and other information, like check-ins and the city you’re in from your profile. It’s something we inform our users about, via our Privacy Basics site and the About Facebook Ads site.”
Of course, if Facebook can't see your IP address, it can't deliver content to you. Just like someone can't call you if they don't have your phone number, Facebook needs to have access to this basic information to provide its services to you.
However, if it uses your IP address to serve location-based ads, when you're clearly doing everything you can to avoid it, it certainly doesn't bode well for Facebook's public campaign to improve user trust in it. The fact that Facebook continues to share your IP address with advertisers, regardless of the privacy settings available to you via your phone or social network profile, could further exacerbate the negative climate surrounding the social network.
