It's not your imagination. The internet is stalking your every move. Most notably, when you innocently browse a site, the product you were looking at haunts you on Facebook for weeks to come. For instance, I'm obsessed with Pia Arrobio's latest LPA line and now, I see jumpsuit 15 every day on the side of my news feed. I'm not complaining because it's pretty to look at, but I am complaining because it is creepy.
And I'm not the only one who is turned off after logging on. One loyal user submitted a question to the platform directly regarding the eery personalized ads. Mark Zuckerberg's brainchild said that it's not them, it's everyone else.
Since 2012, Facebook has been using something called Facebook Exchange—the platform lets advertisers target users with personalized ads based on browsing habits. According to Business Insider, FBX is real-time bidding between advertisers to drop tracking cookies on your browsers so they can collect information on what you're doing on the web. Once the cookies are planted, it won't help to log out while you browse either.
The social media giant isn't the only one doing the snooping either—the algorithm is enabled on over 120 sites that are apart of the Digital Advertising Alliance. So while there are easy instructions to get Facebook out of your browsing business, the digital big brother is still very present.
Browse carefully, my friends.
