Encrypted messaging app Signal has had a series of Instagram ads blocked from the social media platform, after it attempted to show users how much data the Facebook-owned company collects about them and how it's used to push targeted ads.
In a blog post, Signal described how it generated the ads to show users why they were seeing them, simply by declaring upfront the information that the advertising platform relies on to perform its targeting.
"We created a multi-variant targeted ad designed to show you the personal data that Facebook collects about you and sells access to," said Signal. "The ad would simply display some of the information collected about the viewer which the advertising platform uses. Facebook was not into that idea."
The starkly transparent ads used Signal branding and featured the user's professional role, education, interests, hobbies, location, and relationship status, amongst other personal data points pruned from their interaction with the platform. Unsurprisingly, the ads never made it to Instagram users' feeds and Signal's ad account for the platform was summarily disabled.
"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."
In recent months, Signal has enjoyed a surge in account sign-ups following a bungled privacy policy update by rival service WhatsApp, which caused a user exodus from the Facebook-owned platform.
The privacy-focused chat app has also been promoted by prominent Signal users like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Edward Snowden, which has only added to mainstream interest in the service.
The Washington post bans an add from The New York Times in their papers because they attack them in that add....isn't that obvious.
I hate Facebook/Insta but this is just silly to blame them.
The news here is that if there is a scammy ad, Facebook usually takes a week or more to do anything about it as it rakes in the dough all the while saying that "we are reviewing the incident" or "moderation is an imperfect science".
This case shows that Facebook have the ability and the willingness to act immediately to take an ad down when their own self-interest is at stake.
The Washington post bans an add from The New York Times in their papers because they attack them in that add....isn't that obvious.
I hate Facebook/Insta but this is just silly to blame them.
Huh?
I'm pretty sure Signal knew that these ads would either never show or be pulled fast, but it was still a perfect troll and does give people a hint into what personalized data FB sells to advertisers (and worse).
I was talking with friend of mine about his new job in one of the top popular beer company, and he send me a picture of 0% beer - on Signal. Next day I saw a few ads of that beer on Facebook.
Worth to add - I haven't google or anything like this about the beer or that company.
Ye, privacy :)
Did you ever suspect it’s Instagram? It strongly pushes users to enable microphone access in Instagram Stories. I enabled microphone access once thinking that this is the only way to use “Instagram Stories” (later I found that I can still post photos/videos in Photo Library without surrendering microphone access). Then, I talked about some products with my wife a few days later, and all my internet are populated with that product’s ads.
I’m quite sure it’s Instagram since I don’t give microphone access to most apps.
Apple today shared a new privacy-focused ad on its YouTube channel, highlighting App Tracking Transparency on the iPhone.
In the spot, a man orders a coffee, and the barista follows him out as he gets in a cab, providing his date of birth to the cab driver. The cab driver and the barista follow him throughout his day, keeping track of his whereabouts and viewing his personal data....
The personal details of more than 553 million Facebook users have been published on a website for hackers, according to multiple reports over the weekend.
The details appeared on Saturday, according to Business Insider, and are also available in 106 different country-based packages, included 32 million records on users in the US, 11 million on users in the UK, and 6 million on users in...
Facebook Pay is expanding on its service by rolling out person-to-person payments via QR codes, allowing users to scan a friend or family member's QR code, and instantly transfer money.
Facebook Pay launched in 2019 as an easy and convenient service for people to transfer money to friends and family, pay businesses, purchase products, and more. It's integrated into all of Facebook's apps,...
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's own personal information was among the details of 533 million Facebook users that leaked in a data breach, it has emerged.
Facebook has now confirmed that the leaked data was obtained not by a hack, but by scraping the platform prior to September 2019. The company now says that an exploit was found in its contact importer, but the "specific issue that allowed...
Tuesday March 16, 2021 3:25 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Encrypted messaging app Signal appears to have been banned in China, reports TechCrunch. While the app remains available in the App Store, the service is no longer operational in mainland China, according to the censorship tracking website Greatfire.org.
Western-run social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have been unavailable in the country for some time, but Signal has largely...
Following an app update, Twitter today began asking users to enable ad tracking under Apple's App Tracking Transparency rules.
After updating to version 8.65, which adds Spaces support, Twitter users will begin seeing a popup that asks them to "keep ads relevant" by allowing Twitter to track data from other companies like apps used and websites visited.
Tapping "Continue" on the popup...
Tuesday March 16, 2021 11:02 am PDT by Juli Clover
With App Privacy labels now available for many of the top apps in the App Store, pCloud earlier this month took a look at the most "invasive" apps that collect the most data from users.
It will come as no surprise to many that Instagram and Facebook share the most data with third-party advertisers, collecting info on purchases, location, contact details, user content, search history,...
Thursday March 11, 2021 3:28 pm PST by Juli Clover
As Apple prepares to implement App Tracking Transparency changes in iOS 14.5, CNBC spoke with several former Facebook employees to get details on why Facebook has been so heavily against the planned privacy updates.
Starting this spring, Facebook and other app developers will need to get express permission to access a user's advertising identifier, or IDFA, which is used to track usage...
Thursday March 18, 2021 3:51 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Despite campaigning heavily against Apple's upcoming anti-tracking rules, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg today said that Facebook will "be in a good position" when Apple begins enforcing App Tracking Transparency and could even benefit from the changes.
"It's possible that we may even be in a stronger position if Apple's changes encourage more businesses to conduct more commerce on our...
Friday January 8, 2021 3:27 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Encrypted messaging app Signal faced big delays in verifying the phone numbers of new accounts on Thursday because of a sudden surge in people trying to join the platform.
In messages posted from its official Twitter account, the non-profit Signal Foundation said verification codes were delayed across several cellular networks, and that it was working through the backlog as quickly as it...
Top Rated Comments
This case shows that Facebook have the ability and the willingness to act immediately to take an ad down when their own self-interest is at stake.
I'm pretty sure Signal knew that these ads would either never show or be pulled fast, but it was still a perfect troll and does give people a hint into what personalized data FB sells to advertisers (and worse).
I’m quite sure it’s Instagram since I don’t give microphone access to most apps.