Facebook knows a lot of creepy things about you. Things you might not even know yourself, especially off the top of your head. Do you know the size, value and square footage of your house? Facebook does.
Ever wondered how, when staring at your news feed, the adverts that you see are somehow suited to your interests? Well its all to do with the data that Facebook collects about you. Once it has collected information about you such as your job title, interests etc, it then tailors the adverts to suit you.
See also: How To Hide Your Email Address on Facebook
Some of the information that Facebook collects off you is obvious, standard things such as your school, friends, age and home town. But some things are really weird like when you began a relationship with someone, when you plan to buy your next car and what type of car.
Facebook have now completely revamped their ad preferences website so that you can see the 98 data points about your personal life they use to target you with the right adverts. By logging onto Facebook and navigating through to facebook.com/ads/preferences you can see the sorts of things Facebook thinks you might be interested in. It also shows you a list of advertisers that have your contact details and the websites that you have clicked through to from Facebook. You can also choose to hide adverts from certain advertisers too but this doesn't necessarily mean Facebook will stop showing you ads.
Facebook also tracks your activity on the site such as the pages you have liked, the adverts you have clicked and the device you are using to access the social network. Other metrics include how long you might linger on a particular persons status, or if you read the comments under a video for example. These are all good indications that you like the content and that you'd like to see more of it.
All of these statistics have helped Facebook become a $367 billion advertising giant and has enabled companies who want to advertise with Facebook deliver ads directly to the right consumers.
So Facebook probably knows me better than I know myself but they are not the only company collecting data about their users. Microsoft in particular have been accused of doing this on a large scale in Windows 10. Personally, I see nothing wrong with it as people have to make a living, as long as users have the option to opt out if they want to. In terms of targeted advertising, I can definitely see the benefit in collecting this data, as there's no point showing your mum an advert for the the latest skateboards for example (unless you have a really trendy mum).
Checkout the 98 data points in the list below, some of them will definitely surprise you.
- Location
- Age
- Generation
- Gender
- Language
- Education level
- Field of study
- School
- Ethnic affinity
- Income and net worth
- Home ownership and type
- Home value
- Property size
- Square footage of home
- Year home was built
- Household composition
- Users who have an anniversary within 30 days
- Users who are away from family or hometown
- Users who are friends with someone who has an anniversary, is newly married or engaged, recently moved, or has an upcoming birthday
- Users in long-distance relationships
- Users in new relationships
- Users who have new jobs
- Users who are newly engaged
- Users who are newly married
- Users who have recently moved
- Users who have birthdays soon
- Parents
- Expectant parents
- Mothers, divided by “type” (soccer, trendy, etc.)
- Users who are likely to engage in politics
- Conservatives and liberals
- Relationship status
- Employer
- Industry
- Job title
- Office type
- Interests
- Users who own motorcycles
- Users who plan to buy a car (and what kind/brand of car, and how soon)
- Users who bought auto parts or accessories recently
- Users who are likely to need auto parts or services
- Style and brand of car you drive
- Year car was bought
- Age of car
- How much money user is likely to spend on next car
- Where user is likely to buy next car
- How many employees your company has
- Users who own small businesses
- Users who work in management or are executives
- Users who have donated to charity (divided by type)
- Operating system
- Users who play canvas games
- Users who own a gaming console
- Users who have created a Facebook event
- Users who have used Facebook Payments
- Users who have spent more than average on Facebook Payments
- Users who administer a Facebook page
- Users who have recently uploaded photos to Facebook
- Internet browser
- Email service
- Early/late adopters of technology
- Expats (divided by what country they are from originally)
- Users who belong to a credit union, national bank or regional bank
- Users who investor (divided by investment type)
- Number of credit lines
- Users who are active credit card users
- Credit card type
- Users who have a debit card
- Users who carry a balance on their credit card
- Users who listen to the radio
- Preference in TV shows
- Users who use a mobile device (divided by what brand they use)
- Internet connection type
- Users who recently acquired a smartphone or tablet
- Users who access the Internet through a smartphone or tablet
- Users who use coupons
- Types of clothing user’s household buys
- Time of year user’s household shops most
- Users who are “heavy” buyers of beer, wine or spirits
- Users who buy groceries (and what kinds)
- Users who buy beauty products
- Users who buy allergy medications, cough/cold medications, pain relief products, and over-the-counter meds
- Users who spend money on household products
- Users who spend money on products for kids or pets, and what kinds of pets
- Users whose household makes more purchases than is average
- Users who tend to shop online (or off)
- Types of restaurants user eats at
- Kinds of stores user shops at
- Users who are “receptive” to offers from companies offering online auto insurance, higher education or mortgages, and prepaid debit cards/satellite TV
- Length of time user has lived in house
- Users who are likely to move soon
- Users who are interested in the Olympics, fall football, cricket or Ramadan
- Users who travel frequently, for work or pleasure
- Users who commute to work
- Types of vacations user tends to go on
- Users who recently returned from a trip
- Users who recently used a travel app
- Users who participate in a timeshare