After the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal, we were reminded that the largest social network is watching us and that it collects our data. Mr. Mark Zuckerberg was summoned for a hearing in the United States Congress, and he continued with the rhetoric we have known for years:
Your information is not available to third parties and is only used for advertising purposes. I have the responsibility as CEO and I will fix things.
But where does Facebook collect the information it uses to serve us ads, or after the CA scandal, we can say with certainty that it also uses it for distribution to third parties. Of course, we do not expect that at some point it will admit it. Fortunately, scandals like the CA one come to show us what is coming tomorrow…
The social network's new page explaining where the data is drawn from states:
We use information from various sources, such as those described below, to decide which ads may be useful to you.
Activity on Facebook apps and services
One of the key factors that helps us know which ads you might want to see is your activity across Facebook's family of apps and services. Your activity includes, among other things:
- Pages you and your friends like
- Information from your Facebook and Instagram profiles
- The locations where you share your presence via Facebook
View your advertising preferences
Below we briefly list all the data collection sources that Facebook uses to stop at the information you share with businesses:
Data is provided by those who:
- They have seen a website that uses the Facebook pixel
- They have downloaded their mobile app
- They have made a purchase (or simply added a product to their shopping cart)
- They have seen the ad settings
Data is obtained from various sources such as:
- Where you connect to the Internet (via IP Address on computers, tablets and mobile phones).
- How you use your mobile phone (via GPS and Location Services).
- Your location from your Facebook and Instagram profiles.
And for those who don't have a Facebook account and think they've managed to maintain their anonymity, here comes the following paragraph:
Information you share with businesses
When you share information with a business, such as your phone number or email address, the business may add that information to a customer list that can be matched to your Facebook profile. This information may come from sources such as:
- Customer loyalty programs (e.g. supermarket membership card)
- Information collected by data providers
- Shopping in retail stores
It should be mentioned that the customer lists mentioned above give each interested party a very complete profile of each consumer. The consumer is evaluated and classified. Of course, all the data is collected in huge databases and will not be lost.
Those who are interested and want to learn more about these specific lists and how accurate they can be for advertisers can read more here.
