The analysis shows who sends information about your online activity to Facebook.
A Consumer Reports study conducted with the help of The MarkUp , a nonprofit organization, found that Meta * Corporation receives user data from hundreds of thousands of companies that track their actions on websites, in apps, and in the real world. Surveillance takes place without the knowledge and consent of users, who cannot control how their personal information is used for advertising.
conducted a Consumer Reports study with the help of 709 volunteers who shared archives of their Meta data. From this data, it turned out that a total of 186,892 companies sent user data to the corporation. On average, Meta received data for each study participant from 2,230 different companies. The number varied considerably, with some participants having more than 7,000 companies providing their data.
The study provided a rare glimpse into how personal information is collected and aggregated online.
Research results
Meta representative Emil Vazquez defended the company's practices. "We offer a range of transparency tools to help people understand what information businesses choose to share with us and manage how it is used," Vazquez wrote in an email to The Markup.
However, Consumer Reports has identified problems with the company's tools, including that the identity of many data providers is unclear from the names, and that companies that provide services to advertisers can often ignore unsubscribe requests.
One company provides data to 96% of participants: LiveRamp, a data broker headquartered in San Francisco. Other firms were also identified. Retailers such as Home Depot, Macy's, and Walmart were all in the top 100 most frequently encountered companies in the study. Credit bureaus and customer data from Experian and Neustar TransUnion are also on the list, as are Amazon, Etsy, and PayPal.
What exactly does the collected data contain?
The data examined by Consumer Reports comes from two types of collection: events and custom audiences. Both categories include information about what people are doing outside of the Meta platforms.
Custom audiences allow advertisers to upload customer lists to Meta, often including identifiers such as email addresses and mobile ad IDs. Such customers, as well as so-called similar audiences consisting of similar people, then become the target of advertising on Meta platforms.
Events describe user interactions with the brand that can occur outside of Meta apps and in the real world. Events can include visiting a page on the company's website, leveling up in a game, visiting a store, or purchasing a product. These signals come from the Meta program code included in many mobile apps, their tracking Pixel (Meta Pixel), which is included in many sites, and from server-to-server (S2S) tracking when the company's server transmits data to the Meta server.
How can I see my data and prohibit transmitting it?
Meta users can view the list of companies that have submitted their data to Meta by going to the Account Center and clicking on "Your Information and Permissions".
In this menu, users can either download or access their information. To see companies outside of Meta that have shared your information, select "Your activity outside of Meta Technologies", then "Recent Activity". Here, users will see the number of recent connections between various third-party businesses they visited and Meta corporations, as well as examples of activity that was transmitted. You can choose "Disable" to prevent future data usage by the company. To see detailed information about interactions, request a copy of your data.
But even after you overcome all the obstacles necessary to get the data, you may still have unresolved questions. For example, in addition to easily recognizable company names, the names of more than 7,000 companies in the Consumer Reports study consist of a meaningless set of letters or just numbers that mean nothing to most users.
In the report, Consumer Reports calls for a number of measures regarding data collection practices, some of which may be part of a national digital privacy law that the organization has long advocated for. Recommendations include:
The problem is that only the consumer has the right to prevent the collection of their data. Even a "global unsubscribe mechanism" that allows users to avoid sharing their data is insufficient, because "it still requires the user to take action to protect their privacy. Many people will not have the time or knowledge to do this.
A Meta spokesperson said the company will continue to invest in data minimization technologies to meet changing expectations. Vazquez mentioned that businesses are responsible for getting permission to share information about people with various companies, including Meta Corporation.
A Consumer Reports study conducted with the help of The MarkUp , a nonprofit organization, found that Meta * Corporation receives user data from hundreds of thousands of companies that track their actions on websites, in apps, and in the real world. Surveillance takes place without the knowledge and consent of users, who cannot control how their personal information is used for advertising.
conducted a Consumer Reports study with the help of 709 volunteers who shared archives of their Meta data. From this data, it turned out that a total of 186,892 companies sent user data to the corporation. On average, Meta received data for each study participant from 2,230 different companies. The number varied considerably, with some participants having more than 7,000 companies providing their data.
The study provided a rare glimpse into how personal information is collected and aggregated online.
Research results
Meta representative Emil Vazquez defended the company's practices. "We offer a range of transparency tools to help people understand what information businesses choose to share with us and manage how it is used," Vazquez wrote in an email to The Markup.
However, Consumer Reports has identified problems with the company's tools, including that the identity of many data providers is unclear from the names, and that companies that provide services to advertisers can often ignore unsubscribe requests.
One company provides data to 96% of participants: LiveRamp, a data broker headquartered in San Francisco. Other firms were also identified. Retailers such as Home Depot, Macy's, and Walmart were all in the top 100 most frequently encountered companies in the study. Credit bureaus and customer data from Experian and Neustar TransUnion are also on the list, as are Amazon, Etsy, and PayPal.
What exactly does the collected data contain?
The data examined by Consumer Reports comes from two types of collection: events and custom audiences. Both categories include information about what people are doing outside of the Meta platforms.
Custom audiences allow advertisers to upload customer lists to Meta, often including identifiers such as email addresses and mobile ad IDs. Such customers, as well as so-called similar audiences consisting of similar people, then become the target of advertising on Meta platforms.
Events describe user interactions with the brand that can occur outside of Meta apps and in the real world. Events can include visiting a page on the company's website, leveling up in a game, visiting a store, or purchasing a product. These signals come from the Meta program code included in many mobile apps, their tracking Pixel (Meta Pixel), which is included in many sites, and from server-to-server (S2S) tracking when the company's server transmits data to the Meta server.
How can I see my data and prohibit transmitting it?
Meta users can view the list of companies that have submitted their data to Meta by going to the Account Center and clicking on "Your Information and Permissions".
In this menu, users can either download or access their information. To see companies outside of Meta that have shared your information, select "Your activity outside of Meta Technologies", then "Recent Activity". Here, users will see the number of recent connections between various third-party businesses they visited and Meta corporations, as well as examples of activity that was transmitted. You can choose "Disable" to prevent future data usage by the company. To see detailed information about interactions, request a copy of your data.
But even after you overcome all the obstacles necessary to get the data, you may still have unresolved questions. For example, in addition to easily recognizable company names, the names of more than 7,000 companies in the Consumer Reports study consist of a meaningless set of letters or just numbers that mean nothing to most users.
In the report, Consumer Reports calls for a number of measures regarding data collection practices, some of which may be part of a national digital privacy law that the organization has long advocated for. Recommendations include:
- Require companies to adopt "data minimization" strategies that involve collecting the minimum amount of data needed to provide services;
- Expanding the rights of "authorized agents" acting on behalf of consumers to act in accordance with their rights;
- Increase ad transparency by creating ad archives that allow the public to see all ads that have been shown to users on the platform;
- Improve the quality and readability of the data that Meta makes available in its existing transparency tools so that users can act on the information they view.
The problem is that only the consumer has the right to prevent the collection of their data. Even a "global unsubscribe mechanism" that allows users to avoid sharing their data is insufficient, because "it still requires the user to take action to protect their privacy. Many people will not have the time or knowledge to do this.
A Meta spokesperson said the company will continue to invest in data minimization technologies to meet changing expectations. Vazquez mentioned that businesses are responsible for getting permission to share information about people with various companies, including Meta Corporation.
