Signal's Genius Ads On Instagram Asked Users To Quit Facebook For Data Privacy

Popular encrypted messaging platform Signal has highlighted to users on Facebook how it exploits their data by sharing a series of ads on Instagram specific to the user and their preferences.?

Reuters

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To show how Facebook exploited user data, Signal created a multi-variant targetted ad campaign that highlighted the keywords that are used to target advertisements to specific users. This info is based on the personal data Facebook ‘collects’ from its users and sells access to.?

One advertisement read, “You got this ad because you’re a ‘newlywed pilates instructor’ and you’re ‘cartoon crazy’. This ad used your location to see you’re in ‘La Jolla’. You’re in to ‘parenting blogs’ and thinking about ‘LGBTQ adoption.’”

Signal

Another advertisement said, “You got this ad because you’re a ‘certified public accountant’ in an ‘open relationship’. This ad used your location to see you’re in ‘South Atlanta’. You’re into ‘natural skin care’ and you’ve supported ‘Cardi B’ since day one.”

However, Facebook wasn’t happy with these ads and it went ahead and blocked the ads from the platform entirely as well as disabled the account from issuing further advertisements.?

In a blog post, Signal’s Jun Harada explains, “Companies like Facebook aren’t building technology for you, they’re building technology for your data. They collect everything they can from FB, Instagram, and WhatsApp in order to sell visibility into people and their lives.”

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He added, “Facebook is more than willing to sell visibility into people’s lives unless it’s to tell people about how their data is being used. Being transparent about how ads use people’s data is apparently enough to get banned; in Facebook’s world, the only acceptable usage is to hide what you’re doing from your audience.”

Signal

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This comes a few days before WhatsApp’s Privacy Policy acceptance deadline for May 15, after which, it would restrict its users from receiving and sending messages and eventually delete the WhatsApp account forever.?