Facebook stops ‘enriching’ targeted ads based on third-party data

Facebook has announced that it will end its Partner Categories program in the next six months. That program allows advertisers to target more targeted advertising based on data provided by companies outside of Facebook.

In a brief announcement, Facebook writes that it has decided to end the program. This move is supposed to ‘improve people’s privacy on Facebook’. In a page about ‘partner categories’, Facebook explains the program. There, the company mentions that this is available in a limited number of countries, namely the US, Brazil, France, Germany, the UK, Australia and Japan.

In those countries, advertisers can use data from third-party companies to make their ads more targeted. Providers of that data include companies such as Axciom, Epsilon, Experian and Oracle Data Cloud. Facebook mentions that this option is a possibility for advertisers who do not have their own data.

The decision follows the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the data of 50 million Facebook users came into the hands of the company through an app on the platform. The social media company has since announced measures such as limiting the data that apps and games can access. It’s not likely that a measure like the current one could have prevented Cambridge Analytica from getting the data, Recode said, but it appears to be an attempt to compromise on privacy.