Facebook collects personal data on abortion seekers: Report
A latest investigative report found that Facebook uses data to influence and target people on the web on topics related to abortion. The report published by the Centre For Investigative Reporting and The Markup found that Facebook tracks users who visit abortion pages and websites. The search results are then used to influence people to consider alternatives of abortion.
How do Facebook uses personal data?
As per the investigative report Facebook collects data from websites of hundreds of anti-abortion clinics. Facebook reportedly uses a Markup tool named Blacklight that uses several types of user tracking technology on websites. The investigators closely tracked nearly 2500 crises pregnancy centres and found out that out of this 2500, 294 websites shared information of their visitors with Facebook.
Website shared sensitive, private data of visitors
The report found that the websites shared extremely sensitive and private information of their visitors such as whether a person was looking to abort her pregnancy or planning to get a pregnancy test done. Furthermore, overnight 39 websites even sent Facebook personal details of the visitors such as person's name, email address and phone number.
Against company's policy to share sensitive information about users: Facebook
Facebook's spokesperson Dale Hogan said sharing sensitive information about users with third parties is against the company's policies. "It is against our policies for websites and apps to send sensitive information about people through our Business Tools," Hogan said. "Our system is designed to filter out potentially sensitive data it detects....we work to educate advertisers on how to properly set up our Business Tools."
