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Facebook tracks you for ad purposes even if you turn off location tracking, according to a new report by Gizmodo which revealed that it’s impossible for users to avoid being tracked.
We’ve all been told through various articles and tech tips: If you want apps to stop tracking your location, you simply turn off location tracking on the privacy settings in your phone. But if you thought this would work for Facebook – you’d be wrong.
A new report this week by Gizmodo revealed that Facebook has changed its policy around its location data. Under this policy, turning off Facebook location tracking doesn’t stop the social media network from tracking your location. What this basically means is: It’s literally impossible for users to avoid being tracked for advertising purposes.
To confirm that turning off location tracking won’t stop you from being tracked, Gizmodo reached out to the social media company and their reply matched what the tech news website had already discovered…
“There is no way for people to opt out of using location for ads entirely,” a spokesperson for Facebook told Gizmodo.
As a New York Times article reported recently, a huge number of apps are tracking users’ movements, even when the apps aren’t running, and doing so with significant granularity. The solution to this, of course, is to turn off tracking and location services to these apps in your phone’s privacy settings.
However, even when you do that, some apps will still use your IP address or look at the Wi-Fi network you use to get location information – and Facebook admitted to Gizmodo that it does the former, but not the latter.
“Facebook does not use WiFi data to determine your location for ads if you have Location Services turned off,” a Facebook spokesperson told Gizmodo by email. “We do use IP and other information such as check-ins and current city from your profile. We explain this to people, including in our Privacy Basics site and on the About Facebook Ads site.”
Gizmodo pointed out to the Facebook spokesperson that there was a discrepancy between this tracking practice and what Facebook currently has posted on their website about location tracking.
In 2014, Facebook posted the following policy, in part: “people have control over the recent location information they share with Facebook and will only see ads based on their recent location if location services are enabled on their phone.” (Facebook told Gizmodo it would update this old post to reflect the current policy and practices.)
One has to wonder whether violating their own privacy policies opens Facebook up to litigation now that they openly admitted posting one thing and doing another.
In defense of the practice of tracking user locations, Facebook says it helps the company provide a good user experience and service.
“We use city and zip level location which we collect from IP addresses and other information such as check-ins and current city from your profile to ensure we are providing people with a good service,” a Facebook spokesperson told Gizmodo, adding that tracking helps the company do everything from “ensuring they see Facebook in the right language, to making sure that they are shown nearby events and ads for businesses that are local to them.”
If you use Facebook, know that you are going to be tracked and there’s nothing you can do about it. Turning off tracking doesn’t turn off tracking. If this makes you uncomfortable, your only option is to opt-out of using their services.
