Facebook Will No Longer Allow Third-Party Data For Targeting Ads (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: In a surprise change, Facebook will give up one major data source that the company uses to help advertisers target relevant users on the platform. The company just announced that it will end a feature called Partner Categories, launched back in 2013 out of a partnership between Facebook and major data brokers. Third party data helps Facebook further atomize its user base into meaningful segments for advertisers.

Facebook confirmed to TechCrunch that the change is permanent, not a temporary precaution. In order to leverage the deep pool of data Facebook collects on users, the company mixes information that it obtains from users themselves (Pages a user liked, for instance) with information from advertisers (membership status in a loyalty program, for example) and with data obtained from third party providers. While Facebook feels comfortable with the integrity of its data sourcing within the first two categories, it feels less settled about dipping into these aggregate pools of third party data. The decision was issued in light of the company's recent privacy concerns over third-party data mishandling.

Comments

Pathetic attempt at self-regulation

[Anonymous Coward]

Too little, too late. Get your ass over to Capitol Hill Zuck, and try to stuff the sausage back into the casing. This goose is fully cooked. People are wising up to FB shenanigans and its days are numbered. I wouldn't buy stock in this company at half its current level, it's going to be a media circus.

Re:Pathetic attempt at self-regulation

[Grand Facade]

This is not even a little, in the 5 years FB has had this relationship they have certainly figured out how to connect the dots without this "3rd party" info.

In fact what they have now got probably goes far beyond the info available.

Facebook saves money and digs deeper, PROFIT!!!

Re:Pathetic attempt at self-regulation

[geekmux]

Too little, too late. Get your ass over to Capitol Hill Zuck, and try to stuff the sausage back into the casing. This goose is fully cooked. People are wising up to FB shenanigans and its days are numbered. I wouldn't buy stock in this company at half its current level, it's going to be a media circus.

Wising up? What a load of shit. The only thing more pathetic than your delusions here is the assumption that people still give a shit about data privacy. If they did, Facebook and all of the other social media platforms that feed mass narcissism wouldn't exist.

Their days are numbered? If Facebook lost a million users a month from now on, it would only take 200 fucking years to empty the customer pool.

Re:Pathetic attempt at self-regulation

[jellomizer]

I expect the big thing, is that Facebook is trying to whitewash the problems. Figuring that just some Zeckerberg charm will appeal the masses.

What is needed now isn't an emotional CEO or one appealing to our emotions. But one who is explaining and proving to the public a full strategy to fixes such problems, compensate for the damage caused, and new checks to prevent problems, and showing they see other risks in the future which they need to work on.

Re:Pathetic attempt at self-regulation

[gnick]

I downloaded mine too. ("Settings"->"Download a copy of your Facebook data") I had FB installed on more than one phone. All my contacts information and a list of every app that had been installed on those phones was there, along with some 2016 metadata.

...info that they are prepared to tell me that they kept on me.

There's the issue. Nowhere in the .zip file Facebook provided was there anything about location history or web activity beyond which FB ads I'd clicked. They're not telling us everything.

No longer allow third party data

[rossdee]

Only that from Republicans and Democrats

Re:Too late.

[broggyr]

Delete your account.

This won't change a thing.

[IGnatius T Foobar]

This isn't going to change anything. Facebook has already earned its reputation as a giant sucking machine that takes all of your personal data and sells it to the highest bidder. Actually they sell it to *all* bidders. Smart people are already part of the #DeleteFacebook movement. Smarter people did it a long time ago.

And don't think for a minute that Facebook data won't be used in elections again. But this time Zuckerbertler will make sure it only gets used for campaigns that align with his own political preferences.

Facebook will say stuff

[brxndxn]

If you know anything about Facebook, you will know that they will say stuff with zero intention of actually following through or giving users a real way to verify. Opt out of something and you'll be 'opted in' when Facebook rearranges their privacy settings with wording that seems benign. Facebook started as a platform where you could see information people selectively shared with groups of friends through connections you control. They marketed themselves on sharing things like cell phone numbers privately with just your circle of friends. Then they threw all that out the window once everyone started putting their information on Facebook. Now your 'private' information is shared with whoever the hell Facebook decides to share it with.

Facebook is going to have huge real issues to deal with once the kids of the original Facebook users start growing up. Some parents on Facebook have been ridiculously careless with their kids in terms of posting photos or videos for damn near everything. These kids will start to want to claim their own online identities at some point.

Facebook just needs to stop fucking with people. Instead of their secret private experiments where they try to manipulate people, they really should just go back to being a platform for people to be social with who they want to be social with. Let people organize events, keep up with people they haven't talked to in a while, control their own feeds, etc..

Also, the idea that Facebook somehow helped Trump is ridiculous. Facebook seems to prioritize anything anti-Trump on peoples' feeds.

Maybe Facebook's goal is to get itself heavily regulated.

Re:Facebook will say stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, the idea that Facebook somehow helped Trump is ridiculous. Facebook seems to prioritize anything anti-Trump on peoples' feeds.

Maybe Facebook's goal is to get itself heavily regulated.

It's only prioritized on feeds of people who are anti-Trump. As someone who isn't on Facebook, but sees someone using it on a regular basis and is a Trump supported, believe me...the echo chamber is strong. Her feed is full of nothing but Trump-praising liberal-bashing entries.

It's almost like Facebook prioritizes those things the person wants to see. (Everyone gets their safe-zone...no one wants their world view challenged)

"Face" saving exercise to not be Egg-Facebook

[adosch]

... that was a horrible pun. FML.

This is garbage, calculated PR absolute-minimum-change-we-can-do to not loose any more stock or a user base. I love this "We give a shit now" moment by Facebook, and with Zuckerberg going 'on the record' with Congress to 'make a change'.

This stunt is like having a legitimately bad restaurant experience, and after you decide to walk out, the manager comes tripping over half the tables and chains from across the restaurant to come tell you how sorry they are just so you don't go throw a huge 0-star rant on Yelp. They really don't care, they just want to stop the damage with the one person and the handful of patrons eyes that witnessed it, and not go any farther to continue business-as-usual.

All this facebook bruhaha.

[Anonymous Coward]

They've got the "experts" coming on the morning news shows now reassuring people that Facebook has done nothing illegal, and we all agreed to be snooped on permanently when we signed up, so we all need to calm down.

The truth of the matter is, the government wants something done about this because they're pissed off that all that wonderful data they've been able to slurp up and use to fuck with people's lives is available to other people too. And you know damn good and well nobody involved in the government wants that data collection to stop. What they really want is to lock it down as a direct pipeline for themselves and they're financiers.

The funny thing is, the uproar may cause some people to actually wise up and stop trading their lives away to these media giants, making it harder to track every waking (and some sleeping) moments of people's lives. Ya dun fucked up by letting this shit get public and allowing the plebes to hear some small smattering of the truth.

Now, if we could get some actual technical people on the news shows the half aware general citizens watch telling the ACTUAL truth that these big media companies are a giant info siphon, that could bring the whole thing to a much more manageable state. Though there's still rumblings from a few folks that the security trade-off is worth it for the convenience. I have yet to understand what's convenient about Facebook. For the month or so I used it to follow a couple bands it essentially annoyed me with "related" bullshit I had zero interest in and I eventually shut it down for good.

I just don't understand how people didn't know this was the end result until it beat them over the head.

Just a minor correction

[hyades1]

"The decision was issued in light of the company's recent privacy concerns over third-party data mishandling."

There had been no mishandling of data. The data were used in precisely the manner intended by all parties involved, except perhaps those who provided it fully understanding the implications of their decision.