People who place ads on Facebook know that they can upload a database of names to put their ads directly in front of their contacts. I was going to try it to advertise my book to my followers, but because I have mostly business emails in my newsletter database, I figured that I wouldn’t be able to hook up the business email addresses with the personal ones you guys likely use on social media sites.
BUT… guess what? Facebook has been using what I consider dirty tricks to gather more information about you than you give to them. And that makes it much easier for advertisers to put their wares in your feed. This is the second reason in as many weeks to be mad at Facebook (read about the hack here).
You have to read this guy’s story about how he discovered Facebook’s strategies for collecting more info about you. He and some other folks did tests to reveal some sneaky behavior (read the paper here).
In sum, Facebook not only uses the info you provide, it also…
- Links the phone number you use for two-factor authentication to your account
- Digs in other people’s contact lists to find contact info that they can associate with your name and data
