IS FACEBOOK SPYING ON YOU?
An investigation into how Facebook collects information about us.
No, but kind of...
"I was baking pizza dough. I was, you know, making pizza dough, and I said, "This would be a lot easier if we had one of those fancy Kitchenaid mixers." Ten minutes later, there's an ad for Kitchenaid mixers on sale."
Does this sound familiar? Well you're not alone. Many people have reported similar stories of coincidental facebook ad targeting. I'm pleased to inform you that Facebook is NOT spying on you but they know A LOT about you.
Facebook is EVERYWHERE
One of the marketing tools Facebook is uses is called Facebook Pixel, and it’s installed on millions of websites. So when you go to one of these sites with Facebook Pixel on it, it watches what you do and reports that information back to Facebook. It can see how long you linger on a certain webpage, it can see if you purchase something, it can see if you put something in your cart on a website and decide not to buy it. All this information is databased and used to aim advertisements based on your tastes and preferences. It’s kind of like an internet surveillance camera.
location targeting
Location is important to Facebook because where you live tells them a ton about the kind of stuff you’re probably interested in. For example, if you suddenly appear in a different location, a location that Facebook doesn't recognize, then it knows that you’re traveling. This also applies to if a Facebook friend is searching for a wine opener and meets up with you later that day then Facebook might advertise a wine opener to you.
WHAT YOU LIKE MATTERS
We all are aware that what we like impacts what advertisements are aimed at us. But what we aren't aware of is that WHO we like impacts what is advertised at us. Take Charles Duhigg for example. He used to work at the New York Times, and he’s written a lot about how big companies track you. And he had this story about a friend of his who learned something really disturbing through Facebook. Charles' friend is liberal person who was trying to connect with his conservative brother-in-law on the other side of the country by liking his posts. Soon after, Charle's friend began seeing white supremacist ads pop up in his feed. When he confronted his brother-in-law about this he was shoched to find out that he had attended white nationalist meetups. So be careful who's posts you decide to "like."
