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U.S. NEWS Monday 26 March 2018

American Living:

What Facebook's privacy policy allows may surprise you

By BARBARA ORTUTAY shows the ads.
NEW YORK (AP) — To get Apps can also collect a lot
an idea of the data Face- of data about you, as re-
book collects about you, vealed in the Cambridge
just ask for it. You'll get a file Analytica scandal. The firm
with every photo and com- got the data from a re-
ment you've posted, all the searcher who paid 270,000
ads you've clicked on, stuff Facebook users to com-
you've liked and searched plete a psychological pro-
for and everyone you've file quiz back in 2014. But
friended — and unfriended the quiz gathered informa-
— over the years. tion on their friends as well,
This trove of data is used to bringing the total num-
decide which ads to show ber of people affected to
you. It also makes using about 50 million.
Facebook more seamless Facebook says Cambridge
and enjoyable — say, by Analytica got the data in-
determining which posts appropriately — but only
to emphasize in your feed, because the app said
or reminding you of friends' it collected data for re-
birthdays. search rather than political
Facebook claims to pro- profiling. Gathering data
tect all this information, and on friends was permitted at
it lays out its terms in a pri- the time, even if they had
vacy policy that's relatively Chuck Goolsbee, site director for Facebook's Prineville data centers, shows the computer serv- never installed the app or
ers that store users' photos and other data, at the Facebook site in Prineville, Ore. Facebook fre-
clear and concise. But few quently defends its data collection and sharing activities by noting that it's adhering to a privacy given explicit consent.
users bother to read it. You policy it shares with users. Ian Bogost, a Georgia Tech
might be surprised at what (Andy Tullis/The Bulletin via AP) communications profes-
Facebook's privacy policy sor who built a tongue-in-
allows — and what's left scandals and pressure from puts you in target catego- offline data, purchased cheek game called “Cow
unsaid. Facebook's privacy users and regulators, Face- ries based on your activ- from data brokers or gath- Clicker” in 2010, wrote in
practices have come un- book also offers a complex ity. So, if you are 35, live in ered in other ways. The The Atlantic recently that
der fire after a Trump-affil- set of controls that let users Seattle and have liked an more information it has, the abusing the Facebook
iated political consulting limit how their information is outdoor adventure page, fuller the picture of you it platform for “deliberately
firm, Cambridge Analytica, used — to a point. Facebook may show you can offer to advertisers. It nefarious ends” was easy
got data inappropriately You can turn off ad target- an ad for a mountain bike can infer things about you to do then. What’s worse,
from millions of Facebook ing and see generic ads in- shop in your area. that you had no intention he said, it was hard to avoid
users. While past privacy stead, the way you would But activity isn't limited to of sharing — anything from extracting private data.
debacles have centered on television or in a news- pages or posts you like, your ethnicity to personal- If “you played Cow Click-
on what marketers gather paper. In the ad settings, comments you make and ity traits, happiness and use er, even just once, I got
on users, the stakes are you'd need to uncheck all your use of outside apps of addictive substances, enough of your personal
higher this time because your interests, interactions and websites. Tufekci said. data that, for years, I could
the firm is alleged to have with companies and web- "If you start typing some- These types of data collec- have assembled a reason-
created psychological sites and other personal in- thing and change your tion aren't necessarily ex- ably sophisticated profile
profiles to influence how formation you don't want to mind and delete it, Face- plicit in privacy policies or of your interests and be-
people vote or even think use in targeting. Of course, book keeps those and an- settings. havior,” he wrote. But other
about politics and society. if you click on a new inter- alyzes them too," Zeynep What Facebook does say types of data collection
Facebook defends its data est after this, you'll have to Tufekci, a prominent tech- is that advertisers don’t are still permitted. For this
collection and sharing ac- go back and uncheck it in no-sociologist, said in a get the raw data. They just reason, it’s a good idea to
tivities by noting that it's ad- your ad preferences to pre- 2017 TED talk . tell Facebook what kind of check all the apps you’ve
hering to a privacy policy vent targeting. It's a tedious And, increasingly, Face- people they want their ads given permissions to over
it shares with users. Thanks task. book tries to match what it to reach, then Facebook the years. You can also do
largely to years of privacy As Facebook explains, it knows about you with your makes the matches and this in your settings.q