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Most Facebook Users Don't Know That it Records a List of Their Interests, New Study Finds (theverge.com)
Seventy-four percent of Facebook users are unaware that Facebook records a list of their interests for ad-targeting purposes, according to a new study from the Pew Institute. From a report: Participants in the study were first pointed to Facebook's ad preferences page, which lists out a person's interests. Nearly 60 percent of participants admitted that Facebook's lists of interests were very or somewhat accurate to their actual interests, and 51 percent said they were uncomfortable with Facebook creating the list.
They know I am a man that likes women! I have heard that is incredibly unpopular these days.
Friend, here's what's more likely than not to happen when you do that: it'll appear to clear them out, so far as the user-facing page shows, but Facebook won't 'throw away' that data, they'll just keep it in secret, where the user can't see it anymore. Remember: Facebook does not throw any data away, ever, because it's all salable merchandise. The only way to possibly win this game is to not play in the first place (i.e. never have a Facebook account to start with). You can delete you Facebook account and never go back and 10 years from now their data will be so stale that it'll be irrelevant anymore, but they'll never delete it.
The problem is opt-in vs. opt-out. All data collection should require explicit opt-in, should preclude sharing with other entities, and should include the right to delete the info already collected.
Informed consent, and the right to revoke consent.