Facebook’s move to limit use of third party data brokers angers advertisers

Facebook’s move to limit use of third party data brokers angers advertisers

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MUMBAI: As a direct reaction to Camebridge Analytical scandal, social media platform Facebook has decided to block third-party data providers from its advertising platform. 

To regain people’s faith, Facebook is conducting a broad review of all its data practices. Many of the advertising agencies, however, have not welcomed the step very well.

On Wednesday, Facebook announced that it would be shutting down Partner Categories. This product enables third party data providers to offer their targeting directly on Facebook. “While this is common industry practice, we believe this step, winding down over the next six months, will help improve people’s privacy on Facebook,” it said.

The move restrains third party data brokers to obtain data which they later sell to other broker or marketers to target consumers in social media sites. The third-party data integration made it easy to spend ad dollars on Facebook but now the marketing will become less convenient for advertisers.

According to reports, many industry insiders believe that the move is just a kind of eyewash. It will only increase Facebook’s control over data and advertisers’ dependency on it. Hence, Facebook will gain more control over its relationships with advertisers. 

Many industry people think it will do nothing much to protect user data.

"It feels like a knee-jerk reaction and Hail Mary to stop the bleeding of #deletefacebook - although TBD on if that's actually making an impact - but more importantly to show Wall Street that they can protect consumer data,", group media director for advertising agency Noble People Matt Borchard said as quoted by CNBC.

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