Facebook Will Disclose Who Uploaded Your Contact Info For Ad Targeting

Over the months, Facebook has turned pretty serious about what and how ads are shown to users on its platform. Handing more power to the users, the tech giant is going to introduce another way for blocking non-consensual ad targeting.

Starting from February 28th, Facebook’s “Why am I seeing this?” panel will reveal more information about the brand behind the ad. Particularly, about who uploaded your contact info in the first place — was it the brand itself or a third-party ad agency.

The settings will also display the information on when the contact information was uploaded. Presently, “Why am I seeing this” button in the drop-down menu of feed posts only reveals the biographical details and other reasons regarding why the ad has been served to a specific user.

The new change will certainly bring more transparency in how advertisers use our information. This will allow users to pinpoint a specific agency that was responsible for uploading their private data. Moreover, it will also help the user to stay vigilant about distributing contact info.

Last year, Facebook rolled out an ad transparency page that showcases a list of ads played by a specific brand all day long. Following this, the company also introduced “paid for by” labels for the political ads.

For those who don’t know, Facebook’s crackdown on ads was essentially a result of propaganda spread by Russian agents on the social media platform to influence the 2016 Presidential election in the U.S.

Also Read: “Do Not Track” Doesn’t Guarantee Your Privacy, Thanks To Google: DuckDuckGo