NEW YORK: Facebook made it easier for people to understand and control how their information is used at the leading social network while expanding its quest to better target ads.
The simplified data policy came as Facebook announced that work to improve targeting of ads in the United States is expanding to other countries. Several months ago, Facebook began using information such as where people go on the Internet to help target ads.
Feedback from a website where someone bought a stereo would raise the likelihood of them seeing ads for speakers or other accessories. New ads come with a built-in option of people seeing why they were shown the marketing messages and allowing them to remove “interests” from advertising profiles at Facebook.
Facebook is expanding the ad targeting update to Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Canada, and Australia, with more countries to be added in the future.
Steps taken by Facebook included launching a “privacy basics” education center that uses animation and video to walk people through tasks such as deleting posts or blocking unwanted viewers.
The effort by the California-based firm is in response to concerns by regulators and social network users regarding how well privacy is safeguarded online.
Nothing was changed regarding data policies at Facebook-owned applications such as WhatsApp.
