Facebook’s ‘Clear History’ will affect ad targeting

Advertisers are going to have a huge headache soon. Facebook is preparing marketers for the ‘clear history’ tool that will enable people to erase their personal data from the social network.

This will affect ad targeting. According to reports, this feature will be rolled out in coming months. It will allow users to delete data that social network gathers from websites and apps outside of Facebook.

Data that was usually extracted via these means will now no longer be used for advertising. This move will have huge ramifications for the industry as a whole.

“When someone disconnects their off-Facebook activity, we won’t use the data they clear for targeting,” Facebook said in a blog post on Tuesday. “This means that targeting options powered by Facebook’s business tools … can’t be used to reach someone with ads.”

Apparently Facebook’s ‘Pixel’ and ‘Custom Audiences’ could be really adversely affected if a person erases their digital footprint.

It seems that brands use the pixel, computer code, to tag a user when he or she visits websites, and then continue to target them when they are back on Facebook.

Therefore, in the event of a person clearing their pixels, this particular individual will cease to be accessible, unless they visit the website again and build up their history again.

Facebook is already under more scrutiny and is expected to reach a deal with the Federal Trade Commission and pay a possible a US$ 5 billion fine in the near future.

There will be huge ramifications for the advertising industry and it seems the company has been talking to brands and agencies about these new developments.

Source: adage.com