Facebook allows advertisers to target you based on your shadow profile

So, you’ve restricted the information advertisers can see on your Facebook profile, but you’re still getting served near-perfect ads? It could be down to your shadow profile.

At some stage you might’ve given your phone number to Facebook for two-factor authentication, or a friend may have given your email away in the contact importer, in an attempt to find friends on the platform.

Those phone numbers or emails might not be visible on one’s profile, but they sit in a hidden layer which is called a shadow profile.

Advertisers are able to use this hidden layer of personal information to target you with ads, as outlined in a Gizmodo report.  Read more…

More about Tech, Facebook, Data, Social Media, and Data Privacy