Facebook, you’ve gone too far.
It seems that lately I’m haunted by advertisements that are tied to my recent Google searches. It’s pretty creepy and stalkerish if you ask me.
One could argue that us active members of your website don’t seem to care too much about our privacy in the first place, given the exorbitant amount of pictures, statuses, and comments shared. However, the fact that what we seem to do on other websites somehow finds its way onto our feeds is too much.
Though I don’t remember giving you the right to stalk my online shopping addiction, I know I technically did… When eleven-year-old Katie agreed to your Terms and Conditions back in sixth grade, I gave you the right to watch me procrastinate on Revolve. And although I’d rather not continue to view all of the site’s latest dresses after I’ve exited, by signing onto your Cookie Policy, I guess that’s how it’s gonna be. If you’re a rebel like me and agreed to Facebook’s Terms and Conditions without actually reading it (I know – crazy), you can learn more about the site’s policy by logging into your account and clicking here.
While cookies serve many useful purposes for Facebook, the most relevant one is for advertising. Despite the fact that the site mainly emphasizes that cookies are used to prevent us from seeing the same ads over and over again, a key part of its policy is that cookies are used to help businesses see who their customers are, allowing them to better understand their audience. But from the consumer standpoint, it’s not particularly comforting being aware of the fact that Revolve knows I’m an eighteen-year-old girl from Westchester. All of that information is smack on my Facebook page. Stalker much?
It’s truly ironic that we’re weirded out by your advertisements. Our profile pictures, cover photos, and bios on our personal pages are far more threatening to our safety and privacy than the ads tailored to our Google searches. The difference, however, is that we chose to post those photographs and provide that information. We probably should’ve done our research, Facebook, before we decided to let you somehow stay on after we closed you from our browsers.
While all of this cookie talk most likely isn’t going to push me to delete my account, at least now I can predict what ads I’m going to see the next time I log on to Facebook.
