Facebook corners global advertising by selling user data?

April 09, 2018 | 11:54

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Through their user data business, Facebook and Google in 2017 embraced a quarter of the $100-billion global online advertising market, according to statistics of data analytics company Experian.

facebook corners global advertising by selling user data

Facebook is making bank on user data

Experian also shows that Facebook’s leaked data is also offered in black markets with the price of $1 for a Social Security Number, $20 for a driving license, $100-400 for degrees and certificates, $1,000-2,000 for passports, and $1-1,000 for personal health information.

Facebook’s algorithms can draw up an accurate picture of billions of people’s hobbies and consumption habits. This also helps Facebook attract a huge number of businesses to advertise on the platform.

With an average of 68 “likes” per user, Facebook can easily tell users’ political orientations and hobbies, and 150 “likes” are apparently enough for Facebook to understand users’ personality better than their parents. Furthermore, with over 300 “likes,” Facebook knows users better than their partners, according to the investigation of US-based Vice Media LLC, a company specialised in digital media and broadcasting.

“Facebook is free, but we have to pay with our own information,” said Viviane Reding, member of the European Parliament.

In Vietnam, the public trading of Facebook user data is nothing new, especially since Facebook has become popular in the country.

Vietnam is the ninth hardest hit country by the Facebook data leak scandal

All Vietnamese users’ information is commonly up for sale on webpages and forums for advertising and marketing products.

According to Facebook’s latest announcement, Vietnam remains the ninth country in terms of the number of users’ data leaked, with nearly 430,000 users.

In addition, the total number of people’s perponal information leak in the recent Facebook scandal hit 87 million, with the US in the lead with over 70 million people.

By Van Anh

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