Facebook raises privacy concerns, again

Is Facebook tracking ads? Much to the chagrin of privacy advocates, the answer is yes.

Facebook is working with Datalogix, a company that measures online and mobile sales, to track whether people who see ads on the social networking site actually buy those products, reports Financial Times.

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Datalogix has purchasing data from 70 million American households largely drawn from loyalty cards and programmes at more than 1,000 retailers, including grocers and drug stores, notes Financial Times. The initiative will match email addresses or other identifying information from those cards against information used to establish Facebook accounts.

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So far, the two companies have measured 45 campaigns and in 70% of cases, for every dollar a marketer spent on Facebook it earned an additional $3 in incremental sales, says Brad Smallwood, Facebook’s head of measurement and insights.

Facebook users are automatically included in theses studies, and can’t directly opt out through their accounts. Instead, they must go to the Datalogix website, for which Facebook has a link posted in its help centre, reports Financial Times.

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