Heart Filled Baskets

What Businesses and Consumers Should Know for Their Protection (and Gain)

Facebook’s ability to see your personal facts has been a big deal in the news ever since Cambridge Analytica was singled out as abusing this data for coordinated political advertising. A great way to market your business is to have hyperlocal ads appearing in social media. We take a look at how to use social media geofencing

As a result of the investigation on April 4, 2018, Facebook shared a draft of their updated information policy.

Some things that were addressed in the release may be news to users. Did you know that when a user clicks the LIKE button on a business Fb page, that business can then gain access to that user’s personal profile?

Depending on the user’s privacy settings the company can see very little or absolutely everything. For many casual social media users, this has been concerning because most rarely have taken a look at the fine print in the privateness agreement or even their own privateness settings.

It’s easy to see what info they can see and many people forget what’s even been on their Fb profile over the years.

You can download your own details quite easily. Here are the steps involved (this is also good if you want a backup of old pictures you’ve shared)

Log in to Facebook and go to the top right corner and click the drop down arrow;
Click Settings;
Click Your Fb Information;
Go to Download Your Information and click View;
Select your options then click Create File.
You’ll then be sent a link to your email that allows you to download all your profile information. You can see every conversation, image and more!
To date, Facebook has 98 personal information points within your profile that allows companies to target their advertising towards you.

Facebook Ad Targeting

Facebook uses this information for targeting so they ensure users see ads that are relevant and interesting to them based on their profile information. We use this info all of the time when creating ads for our clients who want to get the right message in front of the right people.

Here are just a few of the targeting options Fb advertisers have using your information:

Geographic location
Age
Sex
Main Language spoken
Last completed level of education
School or college you attended
Race
Income and net worth
Homeownership and type
Estimated value of your home
Property size
Square footage of the home
Year home was built
Household size
And countless others…
What Advertisers Can Glean from this Knowledge
Let’s look at the other types of facts companies can derive based on your Facebook Profile. There is a lot to go through so we’re just going to look at the more basic ones.

Information on your personal interests. They can see all the groups you are a member of. This reveals a lot about you. In April, Facebook made several changes to the API that allows third-party app access, including limiting access to Groups and excluding the guest list from the Events API.
The contact information on your personal profile can include your email address, phone number, and full name.
A permanent record of who you have deleted from your Fb group. When you delete something from Fb it won’t be publicly visible but that doesn’t mean the information just goes away. Fb retains that knowledge even though it’s not outwardly visible anywhere on their platform.
Facebook records exactly when you signed up for Facebook and every time you log in.
Facebook Advertisers have access to all information about you. This allows them to target ads based on your interests, age, geographic location, behaviours and more that allow them to serve up ads to you that are a match based on your preferences.
Knowledge is collected about what ads you click on, what device you use, and the type of internet connection you use. They know every page and post you Like and Share.
Milestones. Fb tracks birthdays, anniversaries, marriages and other significant milestones you celebrate.
Employment information. If you enter this into Facebook then it will be