Annoyed by Facebook ads? This browser extension can help
In what seems like a long-awaited challenge to Facebook's data collection and ad targeting practices, some Mozilla Fellows have come up with an extension that makes it significantly more difficult for Facebook to categorize you. If you're annoyed by the barrage of ads Facebook chucks at you, or simply want to make the Facebook's life harder, Fuzzify.me is an extension worth checking out.
The inspiration behind Fuzzify.me
Developed by Mozilla Fellows Hang Do Thi Duc, Becca Ricks, and Joana Varon, Fuzzify.me is a great extension aimed to making it difficult for Facebook to pigeonhole you. According to developer Hang Do Thi Duc, the inspiration behind Fuzzify.me wasn't simply making data collection difficult for Facebook, but also to end Facebook's streak of targeting women with presumptuous advertisements.
Facebook targets women presumptuously
"Facebook users, especially women, see a regular barrage of insidious and presumptuous ads. These ads use personal data to hawk cribs, fertility programs, and weight loss products," Hang Do Thi Duc told The Next Web, explaining why such practices needed to be curbed.
How to find out which advertisers are targeting you
As it stands, Facebook categorizes you so that ads can be targeted. If you're curious as to how you've been categorized, head to Facebook, click on Settings > Your Facebook Information > View 'Access your information' > Information about you > Ads > Ads interests. Once there, you'll find cards representing all advertisers targeting you. These can be removed manually, but there's a catch.
By making the process tedious, Facebook keeps advertisers happy
While Facebook allows you to remove each of these cards, they have to be removed one at a time. It's quite likely that most users will have hundreds, if not thousands of such cards, and making the process tedious is Facebook's way of ensuring that very few users actually do it. Being a for-profit company driven by advertisements, Facebook has to keep advertisers happy.
Fuzzify.me significantly eases the process
This is where Fuzzify.me comes in. The simple extension, available for both Firefox and Chrome, significantly eases the process of clearing out ad preferences. Thousands of the aforementioned cards can be cleared with a few clicks, and Fuzzify.me reminds you to regularly clear these ad preferences so Facebook can't effectively categorize you and target you with ads.
