Have you ever Googled something totally absurd, random and in no way traceable to your normal everyday interests just to be scrolling on your Facebook days later and have that random thing pop up in an ad? You stare at it for a solid 38 seconds and wonder if you’re crazy or if Facebook can read your mind. Sounds familiar, right? Don’t worry, you aren’t so crazy and Facebook can’t actually read your mind. However, what they can do is very similar.
Facebook’s profitable advertising model relies on tracking its one billion users across the web and smartphone apps, collecting data on which sites and apps they visit, where they shop, what they like, and combining all that information into comprehensive user profiles-one for every Facebook user. Why do they do this? Facebook states that collecting all this data allows the company to serve ads that are more relevant to users’ interests. Now if you are wondering if this is allowed to occur without crossing the invasion of privacy line, you are on to something. Privacy advocates have argued that the company doesn’t make users well-enough aware of what they are signing up for when they create a free Facebook account.
Recently, Germany’s Federal Cartel Office, the country’s antitrust regulator, ruled that Facebook was exploiting their users by requiring them to submit to this practice if they want to have an account, and has prohibited the practice going forward. Originally, the only choice the user had was either to accept the comprehensive combination of data or to refrain from using the social network all together. Now, the FCO’s wrote that under its principles Facebook has “no effective justification for collecting data from other company-owned services and Facebook Business Tools or for assigning these data to the Facebook user accounts.” In other words, Germany has started to shut down Facebook’s ability to read people’s minds.
With technology advancing and marketers gaining new tactics, it is more crucial now than ever to start paying attention to what information you are allowing others to steal from you and which platforms are watching you to see what’s going on in your thoughts.
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