(ProsperNews.net) – Thousands of companies are monitoring Facebook accounts, according to a new report by the Consumer Reports group. A study involving more than 700 Facebook users who provided archived data from their accounts revealed that an average of 2,230 companies shared each participant’s information, with some reaching as high as 7,000.
The study highlighted server-to-server tracking, where personal data is transferred directly between company servers and Meta, the firm that owns Facebook. Meta spokesperson Emil Vazquez defended the practice, saying there are a number of “transparency tools to help people understand the information that businesses choose to share with us and manage how it’s used.”
The report notes that data broker Live Ramp appeared in 96% of cases, with companies such as Depot, Macy’s, Walmart, PayPal, and Amazon also showing up frequently. Two types of data collection were prominent in the investigation: “events” and “custom audiences.”
“Events” are data collection strategies that follow website visits or purchases, allowing targeted advertisement. “Custom audiences” are when advertisers upload customer lists to Meta, permitting ad targeting on Facebook.
Caitriona Fitzgerald, deputy director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the level of monitoring is beyond what social media users are aware of or would expect when they use the internet. “They don’t expect Meta to know what stores they walk into or what news article they’re reading,” she said.
Facebook has previously been embroiled in privacy scandals, including an allegation in 2020 that Meta had “lost control” of millions of users’ data. A group called Facebook You Owe Us filed a lawsuit against the company, saying it had harvested the data of 87 million people to target them with political campaign literature.
In 2018, Facebook was fined around $600,000 by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office for “serious privacy breaches” over the so-called Cambridge Analytica scandal. Cambridge Analytica is a company that claims it can change behaviors by observing data, some of which it collected from Facebook.
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