Facebook targeted advertising still not clear to its users
Do you know how facebook targeted ads work? If that’s a “no”, then you’re not alone. In a recent survey conducted by Pew Research center found out that 74 percent of the users are unaware of the targeted advertising technique used by Facebook out of 963 people who answered the survey.
When they understood how it really worked, they became uncomfortable.
You might have noticed a severe fall in Facebook user base and that definitely has a reason. It’s not because Mark Zuckerberg had more water than usual while he was at the European Union, it was because of privacy issues.
Targeted Ads
Well, Facebook has a very complex algorithm which tracks each users behavior on Facebook. It keeps track on how users are interacting with their Facebook accounts, the products they show interest in, the pages they follow, the interests they add to their profile and even your marital status.
Advertisers are given all kinds of access to control and limit their ads to a certain audience, they can show or exclude a certain range of audience to bring more sales.
Suppose if you’re a fan of Spiderman, the chance of witnessing a spiderman t-shirt ad is quite obvious. It’s not because Spiderman is watching you, it’s because, with great powers, Facebook has taken the responsibility to show ads that makes sense to you.
Well, it’s always good to see ads that make sense rather than seeing the ones that don’t make sense. But Facebook is actively watching you, and they have a profile which tells more about yourself than you could imagine.
You might have searched for a knife on Amazon, and on the way back to Facebook, you see that ad everywhere. But how? they track you even when you’re not active on Facebook. That’s the fact that makes most people uncomfortable, these targeting techniques made Cambridge scandal the worst nightmare.
Read more about the research here, and take care of your privacy.
