The Real Issue with Facebook

Facebook provides information to advertisers about you on things that you have not shared with facebook.

Facebook does not sell your data. Facebook buys your data, this is their business model and its fine, they just need to be open about it.

When you log in to Facebook, they should tell you this:

"Welcome back John, while you were away we noticed that you visited these sites about buying a house: ____.com, ______.com and ____.net so we think it is likely you are trying to buy a new house. We also noticed you visited several sites about drug addiction, please let us know if we can use information to provide your better advertisements."

Facebook should provide you the ability to limit and correct the information they collect about you. They should show you what they have collected about you and what metrics they provide to advertisers to reach you.

2 comments

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gort 8y ago ↗

While I like this idea a lot, I doubt you'd get them to agree to it. They probably think (rightly or wrongly) they'd lose too many people if the extent of their data collection was well known.

fabianfabian 8y ago ↗

This is where laws and regulation can come in, and its not just about Facebook, data about you is being collected and sold without your consent. What kind of person you are (to advertisers) is not being decided by you but by the data collectors and you have no control over it.

I don't think they would lose too many people, Facebook does connect families and friends in a way that provides real value to people. The people who quit Facebook this week will probably be back on Facebook in no less than 2 months and I think everyone would be more comfortable using Facebook if they can control how their personal data is collected and sold.