What kind of "sharing" is really happening on Facebook?


For my post this week, based on John’s section on sharing and mystification in The Age of Sharing and Dr. Herman’s statement that you can look up what information Facebook has on you, I decided to figure out what information Facebook has gathered on me under the mystified sense of sharing. 

First I found this article on Business Insider that explains the various information Facebook has. The most interesting section explained by Business Insider is the “your categories” section which puts you into groups to share to advertisers. Then, I went to https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences to find out what my “categories” were. To my surprise there were very little. The image on Business Insider had very detailed information such as their political views and that they live away from family, however, my page simply had “mobile network or device users”, “WiFi users”, “recent mobile network or device change”, and “potential mobile network or device change”. The first two categories are ones I imagine almost every Canadian Facebook user is a part of and the last two categories are simply not true. I ventured further and found out you can download all the information Facebook has on you in the settings menu. I downloaded “ads”, “location history”, and “about you” and found nothing of further interest. 

I wondered if using AdBlock had anything to do with this, however, I could not find any source backing this claim and since Facebook ads still appear with AdBlock, I doubted this. Is it just that I don’t interact with Facebook that much? I’m on Facebook almost everyday, however, I almost never post or share and only really “like” my friend’s posts rather than business’ posts. Is this how I have managed to mystify myself to the process of information gathering that Facebook thrives on? Nonetheless it is clear that the ‘sharing’ that Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg are so fond of has nothing to do with bringing people close but rather bringing companies closer to their market.

Go to the link above to see what information Facebook has on you and let me know if you have the same or different experience as me. Should we care about how much of our data is commodified? Why or why not?

- Will

Comments

  1. Mike DowellOctober 18, 2018 at 2:47 PM

    After Dr. Herman mentioned this in class I too was interested about what information Facebook had. When I followed your link and checked my categories I was surprised to see how many there were. I had results ranging from "lives away from family/hometown", "Owns: iPhone 8 plus", "frequent international traveler" as well as those you listed above. These results were surprising to me as I don't consider myself a Facebook user. I haven't posted, shared, or liked a post in years. My last activity was updating my profile picture in 2015... Like anyone I have been tagged in pictures since then but haven't shared anything personally, yet the information is up to date.

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  2. JoshuaMOctober 20, 2018 at 7:40 AM

    What a great question, I personally have the same amount of ad preferences as you. I use adblock on almost all my browsers including my cellphone so I hardly ever see any ads. I hardly ever use Facebook as well so it does not surprise me to see. It is cool how they know my cellphone information even though I don't go on Facebook on my phone, only the messenger app.

    I personally feel like it does not matter much if our data like the ones they have on Facebook is commodified, it helps the ad creators know what targets to hit and if you care about an ad coming up its most likely one that you're interested in.

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  3. adam gallOctober 20, 2018 at 11:59 AM

    Hi William,

    I share your skepticism. I fell as though Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook with good intentions, but in light of recent events (especially those involving Cambridge Analytica), I too question whether or not Facebook cares more about connecting people, or connecting businesses with potential consumers.
    However, I'm not overly bothered by the fact that Facebook is using the data I provide them to make a profit. For starters, I have always taken the stance that, in signing up for any social media app, you must be willing to give up a certain amount of privacy. With Facebook especially, in using their free services to find and connect with someone, you yourself must be willing to be found. And second, I think there is a huge misconception when it comes to Facebook and advertising. Many people (including myself until recently) are under the assumption that Facebook sells our data directly to third parties, when they are actually only selling 'advertising space'. Businesses buy up space, tell Facebook the specific customer they want to target, and then Facebook uses the data they have to place ads on the walls of potential customers who meet the businesses criteria (https://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/how-facebook-makes-money-targeted-13270927).
    What does bother me as a Facebook user are the number of recent data breaches they've experienced. It is under these circumstances that I worry about my data falling into the wrong hands.

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