98 personal data points that Facebook uses to target ads to you
Facebook built the world’s best ad platform by tracking your behavior online and off it.
And you don't even have to have a FB account. If the buttons exist and you're not using something like Disconnect or Privacy Badger then here's what sites know / what Facebook can share with them:
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
Why is this scary? I think it is partially due to the fact that people are just learning about it for the first time. Just know, this type of "tracking" has been around for nearly 50 years. Direct mail mastered it first. And privacy, and user choice, are VERY important to any halfway decent company utilizing data to give users access to ads to which they might actually find useful or interesting. Shocking, I know. … Wait, did you know? That's why this data is used? It's not used for anything other than to provide companies that make products and services that may be of interest to you, to actually deliver messages to you about those companies, instead of companies in which you would find absolutely no interest whatsoever. And it's not the type of data one could use to hack your identity, not the ad data, anyway. That data is stored in a much more secure database, and is obfuscated into segments so large, they could be traced back to a zip code at best.
And again, you have the choice to opt out. Guess what thought? Most people don't want to.
Check this out: aboutthedata.com
Once you get to the sign up page, consider that the opt-out rate of those that signed up was less than 3% over the first two weeks when we first launched first launched this; and more surprisingly, the opt-in and correction rate was over 80%.
Also, just an FYI I am no longer working for Acxiom. And, if I had a choice in the matter back when the company shrank by 15+%, I would have not left.
THIS type of tracking has not been around for 50 years. That's an outright lie and if you believe otherwise the your "About" section probably doesn't just sound made up by a jargon generator but actual was made up by one. It's also completely inaccurate to state that the volume of data collected is not enough to accurately target who you are.
"MIT researchers have just shown that it only requires four data points (the dates and times of purchases) from a 30 day database of credit card purchases by 1.1 million people to identify 90 percent of them." – http://www.networkworld.com/article/2878394/big-data-business-intelligence/mit-researchers-show-you-can-be-identified-by-a-just-few-data-points.html
"Stripping a big data set of names and personal details is no guarantee of privacy. Previous research has shown that individual shoppers, Netflix subscribers and even taxicab riders are identifiable in heaps of supposedly anonymous data." – http://datascience.columbia.edu/location-data-two-apps-enough-identify-someone-says-study
Nice sales pitch though.