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If you’ve been wondering about just how secure your information is while using Facebook, you may want to check out the latest report. According to ProPublica, Facebook categorizes its users based on different pieces of information, including income, financial assets, and race. The unfortunate part about this is that the social media giant does not disclose this information to its users.
What makes matters even worse is that Facebook reportedly includes “detailed dossiers obtained from commercial data brokers about users’ offline lives”. This information can be used to promote ads to its users, regardless of whether you are connected to the internet or not.
ProPublica has reached out to Facebook and the company responded stating that it “doesn’t tell users about the third-party data because it’s widely available and was not collected by Facebook”. Sure, all of our information is available on the web, but that doesn’t make the situation an easier pill to swallow.
Luckily, there is a way to opt out of these shady practices, but you’ll have to go throw the 6 different data brokers that Facebook uses. Facebook includes a page within its Help Center which will direct you down the right path.
If you were on the fence about either joining Facebook, or looking to leave the social network, now may be a good time to get out. At least until Facebook makes some type of changes or official statement regarding this matter.
Let us know what you think about this report and if it has changed your perception of Facebook in any way.
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