Facebook will no longer allow ad targeting based on third-party data

Trying to prove to users that its apology is sincere, Facebook started putting new rules in place to avoid a repeat of the Cambridge Analytica scandal that saw information from 50 million subscriber profiles used without permission. No longer will Facebook allow ad targeting based on third-party data. This will not stop advertisers from using Facebook's own data to show ads to certain users.

Facebook is shutting its Partner Categories program, which is described by the social media site as a way to "target people based on offline behaviors people take outside of Facebook, such as owning a home, being in the market for a new truck or being a loyal purchaser of a specific brand or product." Third party firms access data from publicly available records, loyalty card use, and from surveys. The majority of Facebook advertisers use the latter's data, or employ their own. And while third-party data will no longer be used to directly target ads on Facebook, they can still be used to track the impact and effectiveness of these ads.

In a few weeks, Europe's General Data Protection Regulation goes into effect. This law requires that sites like Facebook, and those companies who advertise on such sites, get subscribers' permission before using their data to place ads. The winds of fortune could be changing for Facebook and other social media sites and apps. Twitter, Snapchat and Pinterest all work with Oracle as the latter provides to them the same sort of third-party data that Facebook will no longer accept for ad placements.


With Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg ready to testify during a Senate hearing on data privacy, many are going to want to find out how Facebook is involved with Cambridge Analytica and the 2016 presidential election.

source: BusinessInsider (Paywall)