There’s a phrase I often refer to when talking about Facebook and privacy issues. If you are using a product and not paying for the product, chances are that you are the product. Once again, Facebook has proven to be just that.
Facebook has submitted a patent to use algorithms based on tagging, hashtags and face recognition technology to determine who lives in the same household. The tech is called “Predicting household demographics based on image data” and was submitted back in May of last year, however, was made public this last week.
They will be using photos from both Instagram and Facebook to identify people and then connect them with the users who have been tagged or posted the photo. The tech will cross-reference that information with historical data of past posting, messaging, as well as hashtags used to determine the relation such as #momlife #kids #hubby #wifey, etc. The most important factor in the determination of household data will be the use of a shared IP device in the household from multiple user sign-ins.
This marks two major moves forward for Facebook in the past couple of months, the first being their new “Facebook Portal” which is similar to the Amazon Echo video chatting system. Facebook says they will be using this information for ad targeting. Not only will members of the household be served the same ads, but it also lets those advertising see how well their ads are doing across household performance. This means that they can tell how often their ads are seen and resulted in at least one conversion from a household member, who is likely to be the decision maker in the household, the average household income, and whether it is a family or roommate situation which will determine how and what ads are targeted to them.
This is great news for marketers to be able to specifically target not only households, but decision makers in the household to increase the likeliness of conversions. As for consumers, this could raise some flags about their privacy yet again.
Many people don’t realize all the ways that Facebook is tracking you with everything you do, correlations and even just given data. Things that we “tell Facebook” stay with Facebook. Such as your relationship status with exes, Facebook keeps that information stored that you were once connected in a relationship with that user.
Here are just a few examples of some non-obvious things Facebook is tracking about you:
Your financial status
Facebook can track what you’ve bought online, where you live, your age, your job status, and more to determine what your financial status is and provide that to advertisers.
Statuses you didn’t post
Those statuses that you thought twice about and deleted, Facebook sees those too. Writing out a long rant and then deciding not to post it is probably a good call, but know that Facebook knows what you were thinking.
Apps on your phone
Many apps have the “Sign in with Facebook” feature that seems to make everything easier, but really it’s just another way for Facebook to see what you’re doing when you’re off Facebook.
With all of this, it is not a surprise that they are now tracking household demographics. Now with the release of their portal, it seems like just a matter of time before they are listening in our conversations. If they aren’t already. What do you think? Is Facebook listening in? Tell me your thought below!
