Facebook would have been surprised to share contact information with advertisers

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's testimony to the US Congress in April had opened a Pandora's box full of privacy concerns, going well beyond the confines of a certain Cambridge Analytica. One of those privacy issues was shading profiling. In simple terms, even if you have never signed up for Facebook, the company seems to have a general idea of ​​you. In defense, Zuckerberg had stated that everyone could withdraw from such a data collection. Anyone can refuse this shadow profiling. Only, what about those who have never registered?

"You said everyone controls their data, but you collect data from people who are not even Facebook users, who have never signed consent or confidentiality, and who collect their data. Have a Facebook page to sign up for Facebook to get their data, "said representative Ben Lujan, in a way, highlighting a serious gap in what appears to be Facebook's vision based on the Zuckerberg's consent.

Although the testimony only briefly touched on the frightening thing that is shading profiling, a new report by Gizmodo attempts to paint a supposedly real picture. An image suggesting that Facebook gives advertisers access to your contact information and it seems that this is the case without your consent. Although Facebook may have access to your data in different ways, the report states that the phone book of an existing Facebook user that he would have shared with the social network would be the culprit.

To prove it, Gizmodo attempted to place a targeted ad via Facebook's "custom audiences" feature using a fixed number from the researcher's office Alan Mislove with his consent. Mislove had never shared this landline number with Facebook yet he had seen the announcement, thus giving credibility to the experience.

The report also mentions a paper published by a group of researchers at Princeton University that adds an extra edge to Facebook's secret data mining practices. The newspaper alleges that Facebook also allows advertisers to show users targeted ads via the phone number they provide on the social media platform for two-factor authentication.

Facebook has been in the eye of the storm after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Cambridge Analytica, who was Donald Trump 's data operations team at the 2016 presidential election, was accused of having harvested more than 50 million user profiles on Facebook with the help of university researcher Aleksandr Kogan. Without the consent of the users.

Shadow profiling is even more frightening and even though Facebook categorically denied such tracking, this new discovery raises new concerns.

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