Facebook admits using your 2FA phone number for ad targeting

Gizmodo A few days ago, we published an article suggesting that Facebook uses the phone number you provide for two-factor authentication in order to target you with ads.

Although the previous company hinted that she had not deliberately abused the security details, she has now admitted that she did so …

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Facebook has a long history of using your profile information to offer you personalized ads. For example, if you include your mobile phone number in your profile and you also provided your number to an online store, both numbers may match so that the store can identify you as a customer. It can then serve you with an ad for existing customers.

But the claim reported by Gizmodo is that Facebook will do it even if the mobile phone number has been provided only to be used with two-factor authentication to connect to Facebook. This is what Facebook has now (somewhat indirectly) accepted TechCrunch.

We asked Facebook to confirm that this was what it was doing – to make it doubly secure. Because srsly wtaf. And he sent us a statement confirming that he is reusing the numbers given to him by people wishing to secure their accounts to target them with marketing.

Here's the statement, attributed to a Facebook spokesperson: "We use the information provided by people to deliver a more personalized Facebook experience, including ads. We clearly know how we use the information we collect, including the contact information that users download or add to their own accounts. You can manage and delete the contact information you have downloaded at any time.

A spokesperson also told us that users can refuse this reassignment of their security figures based on ads by not using the 2FA phone number.

I am with TechCrunch on this one: it is a behavior seriously contrary to the ethic.

That being said, you might think that it's the poetic justice that a hacker declares that he will remove Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook page this weekend – and that he will post it on Facebook Live. Bloomberg reports that Taiwanese insect hunter Chang Chi-yuan promised to do so Sunday.

The event is scheduled at 18 hours, Taiwan time, 6 am, 3 am and 11 pm more civilized in the United Kingdom, 13 hours in Central Europe. The livestream will be shown here, and you can keep an eye on Zuckerberg's page here.

Photo: Shutterstock

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