Signal which is encrypted messaging app has questioned Facebook and Instagram’s user privacy policy, by posting a series of advertisements on Instagram to show how Facebook Inc. gathers information from users and shows ads based on that private information.
Companies like Facebook, according to the Signal said that, they are developing technology for the data rather than for you.
Signal said in a blog post late on Tuesday “They collect everything they can from FB, Instagram, and WhatsApp in order to sell visibility into people and their lives,”
Facebook has yet to react to Signal’s blog post, despite the fact that it has blocked Signal on its platforms.
Signal said it developed a multi-variant targeted ad to “show you the personal data that Facebook collects about you and sells access to” by exposing how this targeting ad game is played.
Signal noted that “The ad would simply display some of the information collected about the viewer which the advertising platform uses. Facebook was not into that idea,”
Signal’s advertisement account was immediately blocked by Facebook after it attempted to run an ad campaign to show Instagram users how Facebook collects their data.
According to Signal, Facebook is more than happy to sell visibility into people’s lives unless it’s to inform them of 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”.
Signal revealed that Facebook’s own tools have the ability to reveal information that is otherwise hidden.
Signal added that “It’s already possible to catch fragments of these truths in the ads you’re shown; they are glimmers that reflect the world of a surveilling stranger who knows you. We wanted to use those same tools to directly highlight how most technology works. We wanted to buy some Instagram ads,”