If Facebook has ever surfaced an advertisement on your News Feed that is eerily well-suited to you and your tastes, this is how the process works.
The US social network (which has previously conducted bizarre experiments on its users) has revealed the extensive list of information it holds on users and uses to match adverts with Facebook users.
The criteria ranges from the obvious – age, hometown, school, friends – to the downright bizarre.
For example, Facebook keeps a record of when you've recently started a new relationship, calculates how much money you are likely to spend on your next car, tracks what operating system you are using to login to the social network, and more.
It will even track the types of credit cards you have owned.
Facebook has launched a new website that takes users through the 98 personal data points it uses for targeted advertising.
“We want the ads people see on Facebook to be interesting, useful and relevant,” a Facebook spokesperson told The Washington Post.
To do this, Facebook will track your on-site activity – like the pages you have liked, the adverts you click, the device you're using to access the social network and where you are when you use Facebook.
Facebook also measures how long you spend reading posts, statuses, comments or browsing a friends' photos.
If you linger on a particular person's status, or read through the comments under a certain kind of video – Facebook will take this as an indication you'd like to see similar content.
But it's not simply your activity on Facebook that Mark Zuckerberg's hugely-successful service tracks.
If you remain logged into Facebook, the social network can see almost every other website you visit.
And even if you log-out of your Facebook account before you start surfing the world wide web, it still keeps a close eye.
Facebook is alerted every time you load a webpage with one of its Like or Share buttons embedded. Any websites that use advertisements sourced from Atlas network will also track your movements.
Facebook also provides online publishers with a small piece of code – dubbed Facebook Pixel – that allows them (and of course, Facebook) to log any Facebook-using visitors.
These measures have helped to make Facebook an advertising monolith.
During the second finical quarter of 2016, the California-based company made £4.8 billion in advertising – up 63 per cent from the year before.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which blasted Microsoft over its "unprecedented" data collection in Windows 10, called Facebook's targeting methods "the most invasive in the world."
Here's the full 98 personal data points used by Facebook to keep an eye on you, and match its advertisements –
- Location
- Age
- Generation
- Gender
- Language
- Education level
- Field of study
- School
- Ethnic affinity
- Income and net worth
- Home ownership and type
- Home value
- Property size
- Square footage of home
- Year home was built
- Household composition
- Users who have an anniversary within 30 days
- Users who are away from family or hometown
- Users who are friends with someone who has an anniversary, is newly married or engaged, recently moved, or has an upcoming birthday
- Users in long-distance relationships
- Users in new relationships
- Users who have new jobs
- Users who are newly engaged
- Users who are newly married
- Users who have recently moved
- Users who have birthdays soon
- Parents
- Expectant parents
- Mothers, divided by “type” (soccer, trendy, etc.)
- Users who are likely to engage in politics
- Conservatives and liberals
- Relationship status
- Employer
- Industry
- Job title
- Office type
- Interests
- Users who own motorcycles
- Users who plan to buy a car (and what kind/brand of car, and how soon)
- Users who bought auto parts or accessories recently
- Users who are likely to need auto parts or services
- Style and brand of car you drive
- Year car was bought
- Age of car
- How much money user is likely to spend on next car
- Where user is likely to buy next car
- How many employees your company has
- Users who own small businesses
- Users who work in management or are executives
- Users who have donated to charity (divided by type)
- Operating system
- Users who play canvas games
- Users who own a gaming console
- Users who have created a Facebook event
- Users who have used Facebook Payments
- Users who have spent more than average on Facebook Payments
- Users who administer a Facebook page
- Users who have recently uploaded photos to Facebook
- Internet browser
- Email service
- Early/late adopters of technology
- Expats (divided by what country they are from originally)
- Users who belong to a credit union, national bank or regional bank
- Users who investor (divided by investment type)
- Number of credit lines
- Users who are active credit card users
- Credit card type
- Users who have a debit card
- Users who carry a balance on their credit card
- Users who listen to the radio
- Preference in TV shows
- Users who use a mobile device (divided by what brand they use)
- Internet connection type
- Users who recently acquired a smartphone or tablet
- Users who access the Internet through a smartphone or tablet
- Users who use coupons
- Types of clothing user’s household buys
- Time of year user’s household shops most
- Users who are “heavy” buyers of beer, wine or spirits
- Users who buy groceries (and what kinds)
- Users who buy beauty products
- Users who buy allergy medications, cough/cold medications, pain relief products, and over-the-counter meds
- Users who spend money on household products
- Users who spend money on products for kids or pets, and what kinds of pets
- Users whose household makes more purchases than is average
- Users who tend to shop online (or off)
- Types of restaurants user eats at
- Kinds of stores user shops at
- Users who are “receptive” to offers from companies offering online auto insurance, higher education or mortgages, and prepaid debit cards/satellite TV
- Length of time user has lived in house
- Users who are likely to move soon
- Users who are interested in the Olympics, fall football, cricket or Ramadan
- Users who travel frequently, for work or pleasure
- Users who commute to work
- Types of vacations user tends to go on
- Users who recently returned from a trip
- Users who recently used a travel app
- Users who participate in a timeshare
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