Or lawmakers in certain markets may force it to address these issues. Imagine opening Facebook during a visit to an abortion clinic to communicate with friends for support in a difficult decision, and instead, seeing an ad campaign for cute baby clothes created by anyone who wants to target women making this difficult decision.įacebook could change its location-tracking policies to actually give users control over the data they choose to share in the future if it wanted to. And since individuals cannot meaningfully stop Facebook from inferring or using their location for advertising, they also cannot avoid such ads. This means anyone in the world can create an ad campaign to reach people who have recently visited a particular location, such as a place of worship or an abortion clinic. The professor also offers the following example: But there may be cases where people could abuse this feature, since Facebook allows ad targeting down to a very small geographic area, like a house (as seen in the screenshot above). Also, many Internet users have no problem with Facebook swiping their location data for ads. And Facebook does need to make money to keep providing its services. Some people may argue that it’s all standard operating procedure for companies that offer online services for “free,” with ads showing in the background of everything you do. Even though the Location Services setting was turned to “Never” in the iPhone Facebook app, and Location History was cleared and turned off, Facebook still showed Korolova ads that matched her location. University of Southern California computer science professor Aleksandra Korolova explained how Facebook does it in great detail on Medium. And all of this happens as Facebook continues to give users the impression they can control whether or not they share location data with Facebook. Even without access to your accurate location data from the smartphone, Facebook uses information from your browsing habits, including IP address, Wi-Fi network, and Bluetooth to pinpoint your whereabouts and place relevant ads inside its apps. Facebook does indeed track your location when you’re using its apps, and it’s all done to serve targeted ads to users. If you’ve ever felt like Facebook always knows where you’ve been in spite of adjusting settings in its mobile apps to stop the app from accessing your location, then you’re not the only one.
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