If you aren’t paying for a service, the old adage goes, then chances are that you are the product.
But Facebook FB, -3.71% asserted otherwise in a blog post on Monday explaining its advertising policies, saying that its product is social media, not the users themselves. “It’s the same with a free search engine, website or newspaper,” Facebook wrote. “The core product is reading the news or finding information — and the ads exist to fund that experience.”
The company’s claim that users are not the product is disingenuous, said Bill Ottman, social media security expert and CEO of Minds.com.
“The fact that users do not have the ability to opt-out of personal data collection makes users the product, with no sovereignty,” he said. “Facebook’s claim that all free search engines, websites or newspapers do the same is a clear deflection. Poor behavior, regardless how many people or businesses participate in it, does not justify the bad behavior.”
Facebook is caught between real news, fake news — and your news
On the one hand, Facebook’s latest post contends that news and information is the product, which is generated by companies hoping to attract readers. On the other hand, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has already said the site’s news feed will prioritize personal stories, which are generated by the users themselves.
In this sense, Facebook is peddling neither social media or news in the traditional sense, said Jason Beckerman, chief executive officer of business intelligence platform Unified, but something in between.
See also: This is why most people want to delete Facebook — it has nothing to do with privacy
“Essentially, it is news constructed about your humanity; your family, friends, interests, content, etc. I think we have to remember that Facebook, just like all social platforms, is a business. Sometimes this is easy to forget because these types of businesses are still new to us.”
Under new European Union regulation called General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) companies will be required to allow users to opt out of data collection. In Facebook’s case, it is apparently telling users who want to opt out to delete their accounts.
A spokesman from Facebook said that screenshot shows what happens when users opt not to agree to its terms of service, which include how information is collected for ads. If a user decides to delete his or her account Facebook will delete their information from its servers, the spokesman said.
Experts say you — and not your news feed — is the product
The company’s post is the latest in a series of explanations and apologies after its partnership with data firm Cambridge Analytica mined the personal data of 87 million Facebook users. Cambridge Analytica worked with President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
More evidence that your data, and not the news you find on Facebook, is the product: Scott Relf, chief executive officer of social media app PikMobile, noted that deleting an account on Facebook doesn’t necessarily guarantee privacy. The company can still use information gleaned from any other account you open on its partnered companies, including WhatsApp or Instagram.
While being grilled by Congress over Facebook’s privacy policies, Zuckerberg alluded to rumors the company makes ‘shadow profiles’ of users who have never signed up for the service but who are known through their friends’ activities. “In general, we collect data on people who have not signed up for Facebook for security purposes,” he said.
How to adjust your Facebook privacy settings
Besides deleting a Facebook account entirely, users concerned about privacy can revoke access granted to connected apps, tighten security settings, turn off location services, and limit visibility on the site.
In response to the scandal, about 14% of users deleted their accounts, according to a survey of 5,000 people from Blind, an anonymous social app for professionals, and 24% tightened up their privacy settings.
Zuckerberg denies that there’s been widespread deletions of deactivations. ”I don’t think we’ve seen a meaningful number of people act on that,” he said.
Facebook told users in its post Monday they can change how ads target them under the “About You” section in “Ad Preferences.” There, users can turn off ads that target them based on what websites they visit and delete the list of interests— things like origami or Yorkies — that the algorithm has gleaned from their habits.
