• Washington Post, Thursday, September 1, 2016 9:23 AM

Caitlin Dewey's report in the Washington Post reminds us that Facebook knows what you're doing and what you like. The social network giant recently revamped its ad preference settings, make them easier for users to understand. “We want the ads people see on Facebook to be interesting, useful and relevant,” a Facebook spokesperson told the Post. Here's what targeting options Facebook advertisers have: 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, and Household composition. That's a whole lot of targeting options! Facebook says it strives to keep ads “useful and relevant” in distinct ways. "It tracks your on-site activity, such as the pages you like and the ads you click, and your device and location settings, such as the brand of phone you use and your type of Internet connection. Most users recognize these things impact ad targeting: Facebook has repeatedly said as much. But slightly more surprising is the extent of Facebook’s web-tracking efforts and its collaborations with major data brokers. While you’re logged onto Facebook, for instance, the network can see virtually every other website you visit. Even when you’re logged off, Facebook knows much of your browsing: It’s alerted every time you load a page with a 'Like' or 'share' button, or an advertisement sourced from its Atlas network."

Read the whole story at Washington Post »