Facebook lies about spying on us

This morning the Wall Street Journal reported yet more evidence of how Facebook has been misleading (and, at times, outright lying) to the public about how much privacy we have when we are the product that they relentlessly sell to advertisers. Zuckerberg et al claim we have controls to protect ourselves from spying by Facebook and Instagram, but the reality is that we do not.

In a story entitled “Why Facebook Still Seems to Spy on You,” reporter Katherine Bindley wrote:

If we take advantage of all these privacy controls, it shouldn’t still feel as if Facebook is spying on us, right? We shouldn’t see so many ads that seem so closely tied to our activity on our phones, on the internet or in real life.

The reality? I took those steps months ago, from turning off location services to opting out of ads on Facebook and its sibling Instagram tied to off-site behavior. I told my iPhone to “limit ad tracking.” Yet I continue to see eerily relevant ads.

I tested my suspicion by downloading the What to Expect pregnancy app. I didn’t so much as share an email address, yet in less than 12 hours, I got a maternity-wear ad in my Instagram feed. I’m not pregnant, nor otherwise in a target market for maternity-wear. When I tried to retrace the pathway, discussing the issue with the app’s publisher, its data partners, the advertiser and Facebook itself—dozens of emails and phone calls—not one would draw a connection between the two events.
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The day after I stepped into a San Francisco clothing boutique called Reformation—and didn’t buy anything—Instagram showed me an ad for that store. I confirmed in iPhone settings that location sharing for Instagram was off.
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I asked Facebook why I was still seeing ads that seemed tied to my browsing history. A spokesman confirmed that the setting only covers data that Facebook itself handles. Facebook can’t guarantee that users won’t see ads influenced by browsing data that comes from a source other than Facebook.…

None of this really explains what happened when I downloaded the What to Expect app and ended up almost immediately being pitched maternity-wear. I’m single, I long ago permanently hid the parenting ad topic and none of my Facebook “interests” relates to children. I don’t get pregnancy ads on Facebook or Instagram.

The What to Expect app was among those The Wall Street Journal found was sharing data with Facebook as recently as November, but the company said it stopped using Facebook’s SDK prior to January.

The Federal Trade Commission his week announced a new task force to monitor anti-competitive activities of “Big Tech,” possibly including breaking up past mergers. Given how Facebook and Instagram data on customers are seamlessly integrated, perhaps the FTC should consider calls to break these two up.