Ever wonder why the ads you see on Facebook are basically identical to your most recent Google searches? That’s because companies want to show you search history based ads.
Just last week, I saw an ad on Facebook for something I had only discussed in a text message. That’s when I thought, “Is Facebook reading my texts?” After some digging, I realized that almost every ad I saw on Facebook — and the rest of the internet — was based on my previous Google searches. Web users have expressed outrage over this violation of privacy, and rightfully so. It’s a little unsettling to know that companies, like Facebook, have the ability to track users in order to expose them to search history based ads.
Both The Daily Dot and The Verge recently commented on this matter, saying, “Facebook has long shown users advertisements targeted to them based on the interests they’ve listed and the ‘Like’ buttons they click around the web,” and even “ads based on the other websites a user visits, even if a user doesn’t click a ‘Like’ button” (The Verge). This news, of course, raised privacy concerns for many users.
However, It seems like Facebook anticipated these concerns. According to The Daily Dot, Facebook remembered to include a way for users to opt-out of this invasive feature. Facebook encourages users to modify their ad settings if they “prefer Facebook doesn’t use all the data it knows about you from Like buttons and other social features that exist off Facebook” (The Daily Dot).
It’s nice to know that Facebook is so transparent with its privacy updates, and even that they let users customize their own privacy settings. Some companies, on the other hand, are not so open with their policies. While you make think that your internets searches and the websites you visit are private… they’re not. Always think before you search, and make sure to double-check the privacy settings of any sites you visit frequently!
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