When we think about how Facebook and Instagram target ads towards us, we typically think of cold, clinical terms like “metadata”, “abstract analytics” or “the algorithm”. And whether you like targeted ads or find them uncomfortable, I’d bet almost no one gives enough thought to JUST how personal the ads we see are. 

In their most recent ad campaign, renowned private messaging app, Signal, exposed how social media companies “...collect everything they can from you, in order to sell visibility into your life,” and it is WAY creepier than ever you ever thought possible. 

Your privacy is of the utmost importance! Switch to a secure messaging app like Signal where possible, and use app extensions like Facebook Container on Firefox, or similar settings on Brave, to keep the algorithm from invading your private life!

 https://signal.org/en/ 

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/facebookcontainer/ 

Original article by junh3, posted on Signal's blog:

https://signal.org/blog/the-instagram-ads-you-will-never-see/ 

Edited by Lee Rennie 

Associate producer Will Sandoval 

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