TY - UNPB

T1 - Facebook Shadow Profiles

AU - Aguiar, Luis

AU - Peukert, Christian

AU - Schäfer, Maximilian

AU - Ullrich, Hannes

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Data is often at the core of digital products and services, especially when related to online advertising. This has made data protection and privacy a major policy concern. When surfing the web, consumers leave digital traces that can be used to build user profiles and infer preferences. We quantify the extent to which Facebook can track web behavior outside of their own platform. The network of engagement buttons, placed on third-party websites, lets Facebook follow users as they browse the web. Tracking users outside its core platform enables Facebook to build shadow profiles. For a representative sample of US internet users, 52 percent of websites visited, accounting for 40 percent of browsing time, employ Facebook’s tracking technology. Small differences between Facebook users and non-users are largely explained by differing user activity. The extent of shadow profiling Facebook may engage in is similar on privacy-sensitive domains and across user demographics, documenting the possibility for indiscriminate tracking.

AB - Data is often at the core of digital products and services, especially when related to online advertising. This has made data protection and privacy a major policy concern. When surfing the web, consumers leave digital traces that can be used to build user profiles and infer preferences. We quantify the extent to which Facebook can track web behavior outside of their own platform. The network of engagement buttons, placed on third-party websites, lets Facebook follow users as they browse the web. Tracking users outside its core platform enables Facebook to build shadow profiles. For a representative sample of US internet users, 52 percent of websites visited, accounting for 40 percent of browsing time, employ Facebook’s tracking technology. Small differences between Facebook users and non-users are largely explained by differing user activity. The extent of shadow profiling Facebook may engage in is similar on privacy-sensitive domains and across user demographics, documenting the possibility for indiscriminate tracking.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - facebook

KW - privacy

KW - user data

KW - web tracking

KW - shadow profiles

UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4032514

U2 - 10.2139/ssrn.4032514

DO - 10.2139/ssrn.4032514

M3 - Working paper

T3 - DIW Berlin Discussion Paper

BT - Facebook Shadow Profiles

ER -