> Most people on Facebook are well aware of how "public" their posts are but aren't aware of how public this personal information is to advertisers.
How public is it, then? As a Facebook advertiser I've never seen this elusive personal information collected from the masses, available for indiscriminate pickings. Facebook only sells access to eyeballs coupled with anonymized targeting based on this personal information you refer to, not the information itself.
The average Facebook user is largely unaware of how Facebook tracks their activity far beyond what they say and do on facebook.com in order to harvest data about their personal lives: their financial situation, their relationship status, their medical history, etc. Just because you can't download a file of someone's personal information "for indiscriminate pickings" doesn't mean they aren't selling access to it.
For example, someone might be gay and haven't yet told friends and family. Facebook probably knows from their browsing history. How difficult would it be for someone to run an ad on Facebook, cleverly disguised as an "article" to encourage clicks, targeting gay people in a particular region. Five minutes, tops? Well every gay person who clicks on that link has just given away their IP address and location information and the purchaser of that advertisement has a pretty accurate list of gay people and where they might be located. Hopefully they're using that list for benign purposes but who's to say?
Do you think the average Facebook user is aware of how their information is leaked by simply clicking on a link in a Facebook advertisement?
You (or someone who believes the same) should actually try this experiment and see if the reality matches the expectation, to any level of (potentially) destructive accuracy.
> Facebook only sells access to eyeballs coupled with anonymized targeting based on this personal information you refer to, not the information itself.
True, but that isn't a whole lot better. Surveillance companies like Facebook like to make a big deal out of this, but I don't think it means as much as they like to pretend.
Hi user, we noticed you've clicked on and visited a number of sites for gay bars while on vacation. Your home government in XYZ is cracking down on "immoral behavior" and has compelled us to send us a list of users who have interests like yours.
Yes we know you never publicly posted about being gay or joined a group for gay men, but your internet history says differently.
Facebook has sold hundreds of billions clicks globally to advertisers, most likely trillions. Has there been one incident of the scenario you've described?
>>> What danger do you foresee in your thought experiments?
>> [example foreseen danger]
> Has there been one incident of the scenario you've described?
Don't shift the goal posts. You asked for a foreseen danger. @britch gave an example foreseen danger.
I also think the example is unfortunately realistic. I would not be surprised if in the near future repressive governments attempt to compel data brokers, pimps, and hoarders to provide information on 'undesirables'.
How public is it, then? As a Facebook advertiser I've never seen this elusive personal information collected from the masses, available for indiscriminate pickings. Facebook only sells access to eyeballs coupled with anonymized targeting based on this personal information you refer to, not the information itself.