If you've ever been a bit creeped out by the synchronicity of your search history and the ads you see on Facebook, the company is now giving users a way to better customize what advertisements pop up on their profile.
Currently, much of the ads users see come from the interaction with brand pages but soon things will change. Facebook is looking to make ads even more personalized by mining mobile data and websites with Facebook plugins to make the ads all the more focused. To opt out, customers can go to this site, and change their phone settings accordingly.
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In a video posted on Facebook's newsroom blog, product manager Jake Brill explained how the company works with businesses to connect them with the demographics whose attention they most want to grab. With the changes, Brill said "the number of ads you see won't change but because we'll know more about what you like, they'll be more relevant."
And this is good for Facebook's business model. The social-media giant will now be able to gather even more precious data about users, which could help drive up the ad prices businesses are willing to pay for a more precise targeted demographic.
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As for the steps users can take to learn more about the ads they're seeing, they can manage their preferences by clicking on the right corner of the ad in question and choosing the "Why am I seeing this?" option. Users can also add or change any of the "interests" that Facebook has ascribed to them.
Perhaps it's not surprising about this additional stab at clarity, when with the recent EU ruling about Google and the "right to be forgotten," the digital footprints we leave behind continues to be a going concern.
Related: Facebook Rolls Out Site-Wide 'Privacy Checkup,' Revamps Default User Settings