FlickrIt’s no secret that Facebook knows a lot about its users.
From ads that advertise what brand of shoes you wear to ones that promote that kitchen pan you were just looking at on eBay two minutes ago, the social media giant has shown us they know much more about us than we’d ever suspect.
But what exact information does it have about you? Well, they’ve made it possible to figure that out.
Here’s how you find out what kind of person Facebook thinks you are:
Go to facebook.com/ads/preferences
FacebookBrowse what Facebook thinks it knows about you
FacebookWhile I’m definitely not interested in annual percentage rates or chemistry, some of the information Facebook has on me is freakishly accurate.
It has me pegged down as someone who likes yoga, travel and photography – all accurate, but not necessarily impressive.
They do, however, know that I’m an expat living away from my parents who uses an iPhone. They also know the model of my phone and what my primary browsers on my home and work computer are.
Not happy? You can change Facebook’s ad preferences for you
FacebookIf there are more than a few inaccuracies in the way Facebook has depicted you, you can change it. If you hover over the preference you don’t like, you can tap the ‘X’ in the corner of the box to remove it.
Before removing them, you can click on an interest to see a preview of the types of adverts Facebook is likely to show you on your news feed based on that character trait, The Independent reports. It also shows you how Facebook came to associate that trait with you in the first place.
So what else does Facebook know about you?
It’s not clear if the social media giant lists everything it knows about you in the ads preferences section, or if this is just a selection. But it’s not unlikely Facebook has more information on us than we can easily see.
