Facebook to End Targeted Ads Built with Third-Party Data Mining

The fallout from the Cambridge Analytica controversy has triggered Facebook to cancel an advertising tool that pulled data from people'southward backgrounds, similar whether you own a home or what products you like to buy.

"We want to allow advertisers know that we will be shutting down Partner Categories," Facebook said on Wednesday. "This product enables 3rd party information providers to offer their targeting directly on Facebook."

These 3rd-party providers include Acxiom and Experian, which specialize in mining information on The states consumers that tin can be rented out for marketing purposes. Information about your ethnicity, marital condition, whether you own a motorcar, the kinds of purchases yous make, and how much you spend on them can all be logged.

The information mining certainly sounds creepy, but it's as well legal and standard practice in the marketing world. Acxiom, for case, pulls the information from public records, consumer surveys, and other commercial entities that managed to collect your data with your consent.

Facebook Partner Categories

Facebook decided to let its own advertisers harness the power of these data brokers with its Partner Categories over on its ad platform. Only no more than. The company is phasing out the tool, amid the growing backlash over the social media giant'southward privacy practices.

"We believe this pace, winding down over the next half-dozen months, will help meliorate people's privacy on Facebook," the company said.

The social media giant's privacy practices have been under the microscope ever since news emerged that a UK political consultancy chosen Cambridge Analytica managed to pull the personal data from 50 million Facebook users. It did and then with the help of a third-party app that surveyed Facebook users, by not just collecting their information, but besides vacuuming data on their Facebook friends.

In response, Facebook is revamping its privacy practices, and Wednesday's motion to stop the advertizement tool represents some other step. Marketers might not like the decision, simply the social networking service is facing a growing #Deletefacebook movement, forth with the threat of possible government regulation on data privacy, both of which could derail Facebook's business organisation.