Facebook knows too much about its users, and its users are too many. The fact is of course very good for the company. Sta data collected includes your personal information, contacts, city of residence, what music and movies you prefer. All of these can help in serving up highly relevant ads from Facebook aimed at your pocket.
What you may have noticed as a user of the biggest social network is that it occasionally suggests people you may know to add to your friends list. The interesting thing here and the potentially very worrying thing is that the service can use the record of your location to suggest new “friends.”
Fusion notes that Facebook uses a combination of many factors, such as overlapping friends networks and position history (do not forget that Facebook can also watch you through your phone) and recommending new people to add to your friends.
Of course, this could be very good in some cases, like when you meet someone for a party or gym and you want to see him again, Facebook may find you were in the same place and suggest you become friends.
But what if you happen to be around people you never want to meet again? What if you find yourself with people you don't want them to know information you through social networks?
Fusion mentioned several examples, such as a meeting of Anonymous Alcoholics where people want to be confidential, or from an abortion clinic and much more.
This, of course, is only one of the real dangers of handing over your data to companies in exchange free services: you don't know how and where they might end up being used, and the consequences might not be immediately apparent.
Surely, we can complain about these uses of our data, and perhaps find our right. However, due to the rapid development of affiliated services and increasing our dependence on them, it is difficult to cover that we do on the internet. This makes data collection very easy and then locating and harassing.
To prevent Facebook from tracking your location on your phone, from the Account Settings menu, find "Location" and turn off "Location History."
