«Breaking News» ANOTHER privacy row for Facebook as firm finally admits 'shadow' phone numbers are used to serve ads

Facebook has confirmed that advertisers use 'shadow' phone numbers to serve up targeted advertisements. 

The social media giant acknowledged that it uses contact information uploaded to users' profiles for ad targeting purposes. 

It comes after a study by two US universities, first reported by Gizmodo, found that phone numbers given to Facebook for two-factor authentication were also used to generate user-targeted ads.   

Two-factor authentication is intended to enhance security by requiring a second step, such as entering codes sent via text messages, as well as passwords to get into accounts.

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A new investigation has found that the social media giant permits some advertisers to take user information provided for security purposes and use it to serve up targeted content 

The study supported concerns that Facebook uses 'shadow' sources of data not given to the social network for the purpose of sharing to make money on advertising.

'We use the information people provide to offer a better, more personalized experience on Facebook, including ads,' a spokeswoman said in response to an AFP inquiry about the study findings.

'We are clear about how we use the information we collect, including the contact information that people upload or add to their own accounts.'

Phone numbers added to profiles, for security purposes, or for messaging were potential fodder for advertisers, according to the study.

'These findings hold despite all the relevant privacy controls on our test accounts being set to their most private settings,' researchers said in the study, which looked at ways advertisers can get personally identifying information (PII) from Facebook or its WhatsApp and Messenger services.

Contact lists uploaded to Facebook platforms could be mined for personal information, meaning that people could unintentionally help advertisers target their friends.

Facebook previously declined the existence of 'shadow contacts.' CEO Mark Zuckerberg specifically addressed shadow profiles when he appeared on Capitol Hill earlier this year

'Most worrisome, we found that phone numbers uploaded as part of syncing contacts -- that were never owned by a user and never listed on their account - were in fact used to enable PII-based advertising,' researchers said in the study.

Gizmodo also found the data to have been collected from other users' address books.

Put simply, the data was collected and used for advertising when some users never shared it with Facebook in the first place.

Researchers supplied their own phone numbers for the study and found that targeted advertisements arrived on their Facebook account within weeks.  

They found that when a person gives a phone number for two-factor authentication purposes or log-in alerts, the phone number was targeted by advertisers within a few weeks, Gizmodo said.

HOW CAN YOU STOP FACEBOOK'S ADVERTISING NETWORK TRACKING YOU ONLINE?

Part of what makes companies like Facebook and Google so valuable, is that they oversee vast treasure troves of user data which can be of huge benefit to brands.

For advertisers, it means they're more likely to get a higher click-through rate on their advertisements, boosting the effectiveness of their campaigns.

For users, it means forfeiting personal information to a variety of unknown sources.

Thankfully, there are a number of steps that can be taken to prevent Facebook's ad partners from following you as you browse the internet on your phone or desktop computer. 

Changing your settings on your smartphone or tablet

If you own an iPhone or iPad, the steps to block targeted adverts are relatively simple.

Go to Settings, tap Privacy and then scroll down to click on Advertising.

From there, swipe the 'Limit Ad Tracking' button. 

If you choose to leave the 'Limit Ad Tracking' feature off, that means that advertisers can track your browsing behavior by assigning your device a unique ID number, or a Identifier For Advertising. 

In turn, it will be harder for ad technology companies to track your browsing behavior.

If you own an Android phone or tablet, the process is very similar. 

Open up Settings, navigate to Accounts and Sync, select Google, then Ads and finally, select 'Opt Out of Interest Based Ads.'  

Changing your browser settings

If you're browsing the internet on Google Chrome, go to 'Settings' in the right-hand dropdown menu.

From there, click on 'Show advanced settings,' then select Privacy.

Finally, click on 'Send a do not track request with your browsing traffic.' 

A popup on Chrome further explains what this means: 'Enabling Do Not Track means that a request will be included with your browsing traffic.

'Any effect depends on whether a website responds to the request, and how the request is interpreted.'

'For example, some websites may respond to this request by showing you ads that aren't based on other websites you've visited.'

'Many websites will still collect and use your browsing data-- for example, to improve security, to provide content, services, ads, and recommendations on their websites, and to generate reporting statistics.'  

What this means is that not all websites necessarily have to honor 'Do Not Track' requests. 

Contacting your local data privacy alliance

Google, Facebook and Twitter are just a few of the major corporations that are part of a number of privacy alliances that have agreed to honor requests to stop tracking.

These are the Digital Advertising Alliance in the US, the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada and the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance. 

The websites of each of these organizations contain instructions on how to add your details to their 'do not track' schemes.

Change your tacking settings in Facebook 

Facebook has given users of its social network the option to opt out of ad tracking via the site.

First, log in to Facebook, go to Settings, then click on 'Ads' in the menu on the left-hand side of the screen. 

Under Ad Settings, click on the button that says 'Ads on apps and websites off of the Facebook Companies.'

Then scroll down to the bottom and select 'No.' 

Facebook says that if you select that option, it means that you'll still see ads, but 'they won't be as relevant to you.' 

Additionally, you may still see ads related to your age, gender or location. 

Similarly, if a friend shares contacts from their phone's address book with Facebook, advertisers were found to have contacted phone numbers from that contact list about a month later.

In this case, there's little that the targeted user, whose contact information was unsuspectingly share with Facebook, can do.    

Facebook is grappling with the worst crisis in its history, vilified for not more zealously guarding the information that users share.

The Silicon Valley-based internet colossus faced intense global scrutiny over the mass harvesting of personal data by Cambridge Analytica, a British political consultancy that worked for Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign.

The company has admitted up to 87 million users may have had their data hijacked in the scandal.

Link hienalouca.com

https://hienalouca.com/2018/09/28/another-privacy-row-for-facebook-as-firm-finally-admits-shadow-phone-numbers-are-used-to-serve-ads/
Main photo article Facebook has confirmed that advertisers use ‘shadow’ phone numbers to serve up targeted advertisements. 
The social media giant acknowledged that it uses contact information uploaded to users’ profiles for ad targeting purposes. 
It comes after a study by two US universities, f...

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Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca





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