Facebook Now Tracks Users' Store Visits to Drive Ads

By Edward Leano, Christian Post Contributor Sunday, September 24, 2017

Subscribers who let the Facebook app track their whereabouts will now find select brick and mortar stores following them online after they leave the store. Their Facebook friends are now on the radar, as well, as the social media platform opened up its location data to advertisers with a new suite of tools.

"Select businesses that are eligible for store visits reporting can now also create custom audiences made up of people who have recently visited their store," Mark Zuckerberg's social media giant explained in a news update.

While the fact that Facebook has been tracking the location data of its users is not exactly news, the extent that the social media platform goes to track its users is fairly comprehensive, to say the least. Facebook is not just using site visits and GPS data, but it also uses ad beacons that reach out to devices as users walk past them.

Facebook also uses WiFi information, radio signals, cell tower information, and partnerships with retail and check-in systems like Square and Marketo to follow as many of their users' purchases as they can.

With this gold mine of information on their user's shopping habits, Facebook is now letting advertisers use this to their full advantage. Users who have been tracked to a store location will now begin to see that outlet's ads on their feed, or their competitor's, in some cases, as Ad Age notes.

Companies who have signed up for this feature include KFC, Dick's Sporting Goods and Macy's, as Facebook revealed. Users who buy from, visit or maybe venture near one of their stores may begin to see ads targeted to them when they browse their Facebook feed.

Their friends may also start to get ads from them, as well, with Facebook perhaps banking on the notion that social media cliques will have similar interests.

Facebook is also currently embroiled in controversy after it was revealed that they have sold $100,000 worth of ads to possible Russian groups meddling with the 2016 election.