Good Questions, Real Answers: Data-Handling and Privacy

by The Latest News from Facebook for Business November 15, 2019

Good Questions, Real Answers: Data-Handling and Privacy

November 15, 2019

As the ad industry evolves, we know it’s important that advertisers understand how our platform enables you to create relevant, impactful ads that put people’s interests first. It’s why we recently launched a new section of our Facebook for Business website, designed to connect people to answers to some of their most important questions around topics like privacy and data use. But we know you might want to learn more, so we’re helping you dig deeper and answering more questions about how the data our platform receives shapes people’s experiences with ads on Facebook.

First: why is data so important? Ads play an important role in our mission to connect the world. They allow our platform to be free for people to use, and help grow businesses everywhere. It's our principle that ads are built for people first, so we aim to make them as relevant as posts people see from their friends and family. When our platform delivers ads that are relevant to people, they have a more positive experience, and you benefit because people are more likely to engage with your ads. A 2018 survey by OpenX and The Harris Poll found about 3 out of 5 US internet users said they were more likely to care about a personalized ad. Consumer Attitudes on Marketing 2019, eMarketer Data helps advertisers deliver these more personalized ads, and in turn, advertisers see extended ad reach, optimization, and measurement.

Does my data benefit other advertisers?

The short answer is that your company receives significantly more value from your data than other advertisers. Here’s why:

Data from individual advertisers represents a small portion of the data on our platform.
So while your data (and data from other advertisers) technically improves our ad delivery model for all advertisers, it benefits your goals significantly more than anyone else.
Our ads system favors your own customer interactions.
It’s the goal of our ads system to deliver your ads to people that are most likely to engage with your business. One of the strongest indicators of whether or not someone will take your desired action comes from the information you share about your own customer interactions, not data from other advertisers. That’s why we prioritize your information, and encourage you to share it whenever available.
Competitors can’t directly target your customers.
Our platforms use available data to determine people's intent and what’s relevant to them, and we require multiple sources of intent for someone to be eligible to see prospecting ads. If someone makes a purchase on your website, other advertisers won’t be able to target them solely on the basis of that purchase. For retargeted ads, individual advertisers’ Custom Audiences are only accessible to you, unless you decide to share access to that audience. All information used by our optimization system is aggregated with millions of other customer interactions and activity.

Does Facebook use my customer interactions to promote their own products?

We don’t use your data to directly target your customers when promoting our own products and services, much like we don’t allow your competitors to.

How do you keep any personal information my company passes to Facebook safe?

Facebook's business tools use a technique called hashing to help secure client data before it’s sent to Facebook. Hashing creates a nonreversible code for a piece of text, and our hashing algorithm is one that’s often used in industries that handle sensitive data, like online banking. Before any customer data identifiers you send through the pixel are transmitted to Facebook, they are ‘hashed’ locally on the customer’s computer systems. Facebook only receives the hashed value. Our platform uses the hashed client data to help match pixel events to FB users, and it’s deleted after the matching process is complete.

As people’s expectations evolve, so will our products. What won’t change is our belief that what’s good for people is good for business. Privacy will continue to be at the core of our innovation, helping us ensure Facebook is a positive place for everyone. If you want to learn more about our data privacy policies, tools and how they apply to your business, visit the Privacy and Data-Use Hub.

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Good Questions, Real Answers: Data-Handling and Privacy

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s the ad industry evolves, we know it’s important that advertisers understand how our platform enables you to create relevant, impactful ads that put people’s interests first. It’s why we recently launched a new section of our Facebook for Business website, designed to connect people to answers to some of their most important questions around topics like privacy and data use. But we know you might want to learn more, so we’re helping you dig deeper and answering more questions about how the data our platform receives shapes people’s experiences with ads on Facebook.

First: why is data so important? Ads play an important role in our mission to connect the world. They allow our platform to be free for people to use, and help grow businesses everywhere. It's our principle that ads are built for people first, so we aim to make them as relevant as posts people see from their friends and family. When our platform delivers ads that are relevant to people, they have a more positive experience, and you benefit because people are more likely to engage with your ads. A 2018 survey by OpenX and The Harris Poll found about 3 out of 5 US internet users said they were more likely to care about a personalized ad.¹ Data helps advertisers deliver these more personalized ads, and in turn, advertisers see extended ad reach, optimization, and measurement.

Does my data benefit other advertisers?

The short answer is that your company receives significantly more value from your data than other advertisers. Here’s why:

Data from individual advertisers represents a small portion of the data on our platform.
So while your data (and data from other advertisers) technically improves our ad delivery model for all advertisers, it benefits your goals significantly more than anyone else.
Our ads system favors your own customer interactions.
It’s the goal of our ads system to deliver your ads to people that are most likely to engage with your business. One of the strongest indicators of whether or not someone will take your desired action comes from the information you share about your own customer interactions, not data from other advertisers. That’s why we prioritize your information, and encourage you to share it whenever available.
Competitors can’t directly target your customers.
Our platforms use available data to determine people's intent and what’s relevant to them, and we require multiple sources of intent for someone to be eligible to see prospecting ads. If someone makes a purchase on your website, other advertisers won’t be able to target them solely on the basis of that purchase. For retargeted ads, individual advertisers’ Custom Audiences are only accessible to you, unless you decide to share access to that audience. All information used by our optimization system is aggregated with millions of other customer interactions and activity.

Does Facebook use my customer interactions to promote their own products?

We don’t use your data to directly target your customers when promoting our own products and services, much like we don’t allow your competitors to.

How do you keep any personal information my company passes to Facebook safe?