How to use your iPhone to see what political affiliation Facebook thinks you have

Posted:
in iPhone edited August 2016
Facebook stores a significant amount of data on every user, including details about devices and operating systems you've used to access the service, and what political affiliation you may be. Here's how to find out what the world's largest social network knows about you.




Facebook recently opened up its data stores, telling users what data it was collecting on them in an effort to tailor what content and advertisements they see.

They didn't say it would be easy to find, however. Here's how find out what Facebook has gleaned about your political affiliation, and other tidbits about you.

1) Open the Facebook app on your iPhone, and click more.

2) Select "Settings"

3) Select "Account Settings"



4) Scroll down to Ads

5) Choose "Manage the preferences..."

6) Select "Visit ad preferences"



7) Select "More"

8) Select "Lifestyle and Culture"

9) Scroll down to US Politics, and it will tell you how Facebook assumes you will vote, amongst other gleaned information.



According to the New York Times, Facebook gathers political affiliation information based on stated preferences, sites liked, and adjacency. You user adjacency to a political group is measured by the affiliation of other people that visit the same Facebook groups and pages that you do.

The gleaned information that Facebook has should be viewed with a grain of salt. While general terms identified as favored topics for the user -- or denotation of the user's preferred operating system -- are correct, the political affiliation was misidentified for most of the people we gave the instructions to that did not self-identify as associated with a political affiliation.

Both the Clinton and Trump campaigns are aiming Facebook ad buys at politically moderate-identified individuals.

Of course, targeted ads on Facebook apply to interests that go well beyond political affiliation to include factors such as schools attended, family proximity, favorite celebrities, and much more. Facebook will also target users with ads based on websites they follow, including AppleInsider's official page.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 27
    chiachia Posts: 713member
    No thank you.

    I deleted the Facebook app from my iPhone.
    I allowed it access to my Photos to facilitate the upload of the occasional snap.
    The Facebook app then regularly collated many of my photos into some scrapbook album and kept pestering me to post the result onto Facebook.

    Frigthening.
    SpamSandwichTurboPGTlollivertallest skil
  • Reply 2 of 27
    Good for those who are or have been users of Facebook.
    How do those who have never used FB find out what data that relates to you they have sucked out of the ether?
    Who knows if it is accurate or a complete load of Bulls whatsits?
  • Reply 3 of 27
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
  • Reply 4 of 27
    zroger73zroger73 Posts: 787member
    "US Politics (Conservative)"

    Their algorithm is broken!
    frankie
  • Reply 5 of 27
    jfc1138jfc1138 Posts: 3,090member
    Frigthening


    williamlondonevilutionSpamSandwich
  • Reply 6 of 27
    jfc1138jfc1138 Posts: 3,090member
    You can say that again!
  • Reply 7 of 27
    Being asked to share a photo album is frightening? And I thought I was timid.
  • Reply 8 of 27
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    Being asked to share a photo album is frightening?
    Do you really think "frightening" refers to a photo album?
  • Reply 9 of 27
    What I find strange (perhaps really creepy better describes it) is the section of advertisers that have uploaded my contact information to Facebook: "Review advertisers whose adverts you may see because you're in a contact list they uploaded to Facebook." When in the hell did I give anyone any permission to upload any information to Facebook? I'm so completely careful about that sort of shit, it really bothers me that companies (including Evernote!) have uploaded information about me to another company without my knowing this. How fucking creepy that someone who watches out for this shit is caught out, can you imagine the information they have on Joe and Jane Averagecitizen? It seems to run head long into data protection issues, I say this as someone who worked in my job daily to ensure that data protection laws were respected and honoured so highly there was never any chance of impropriety, let alone outright law breaking. Wow is all I can say.
  • Reply 10 of 27
    When in the hell did I give anyone any permission to upload any information to Facebook?
    This happens when you "agree" to the Terms and Conditions of using the service. This is usually buried deep in the scroll of the T's&C's, and nobody reads it. And let's say you agree to the terms to use an app, and then the app breaks your phone. They've probably inserted a paragraph in the terms saying that you agree to settle disputes through arbitration and not a lawsuit. It's out of control.
    tallest skil
  • Reply 11 of 27
    jbdragonjbdragon Posts: 2,305member
    Wow, it says Liberal, HAHAHAHAHA, that's funny. I visit and do so little on Facebook they seem to have no real idea. No, I'm not a fan of Trump, who is no Republican. At best a RINO. There's still no way I'd vote for Hillary who should be in jail for her crimes over the years who has clearly also LIED over the years. I already know what I'm getting there. No thanks. Trump? He says a lot of wacky things, I think which helps get him into the news a whole lot more. He's being talked about. Protecting our boarders and kicking out people who cut the line and came here Illegally is not raciest. I'm all for LEGAL Immigration under the laws of this country. Every country has the right to protect it's boarders. Powers are still Limited as President anyway, though past presidents including Obama have really taken more and more control in doing things. To quote Obama "I've got a pen and I've got a phone - and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward." Last I checked, it was Congresses job to write the bills and Policy's and the Presidents jobs to Sign or Vito those. Instead Obama sounds like a Dictator here!!! It's called Check and Balances. Just because you can't get your way doesn't mean you're then allowed to go around congress and do whatever you want anyway. I don't care if it's a Democrat or a Republican.
  • Reply 12 of 27
    thisisasj said:
    When in the hell did I give anyone any permission to upload any information to Facebook?
    This happens when you "agree" to the Terms and Conditions of using the service. This is usually buried deep in the scroll of the T's&C's, and nobody reads it. And let's say you agree to the terms to use an app, and then the app breaks your phone. They've probably inserted a paragraph in the terms saying that you agree to settle disputes through arbitration and not a lawsuit. It's out of control.
    I understand it can happen hidden in a typical TOS, that's creepy enough, and Evernote I'm furious with them that they did this (along with my bank!), but it's ones like WarFriends, which is a game I've never heard of created by a company I've never heard of, I've never visited their site, I've never used their games, I've never bought or looked at any of their stuff, how in the FUCK did they get my details and how in the FUCK did that imply either directly or indirectly that I approved their use of my data in this manner?

    What have others uncovered in this same exercise, I'm curious to know if any of you uncovered anything you didn't expect to see??
  • Reply 13 of 27
    chiachia Posts: 713member
    Being asked to share a photo album is frightening? And I thought I was timid.
    Is that you Mr. Zuckerberg?  Welcome to AppleInsider!

    Let me give you an allegory as to what was disturbing about the Facebook app constantly pestering me to upload my photos:

    Man gets a washing machine delivered by Mr. Facebook.  Mr. Facebook asks for permission to enter man's house to make the installation.  Man quickly pops to his adjoining garage, leaving Mr. Facebook to install the washing machine.

    Man returns and find Mr. Facebook holding an order form in his hand.
    Mr Facebook tells him, "As you gave me permission to enter your home, after finishing the installation I took the opportunity to go through every drawer in every room of your house and add what I thought you need to this order form.  All you need to do is sign here and I'll deliver it all to you the next day...".

    This mirrors my experience of the Facebook app for iPhone.  I had only given it permission to access my photo album to allow the occasional upload to Facebook.  Yet each time I would open the app I would find it had rifled through the photos I had taken for the day, collate together several of them and suggest they be uploaded into Facebook.

    That's why I had to delete it.
    edited August 2016 lolliver
  • Reply 14 of 27
    hexclockhexclock Posts: 1,243member
    zroger73 said:
    "US Politics (Conservative)"

    Their algorithm is broken!
    They had me pegged as "Very Liberal". Not quite.  It seemed tied to some music I looked up. What would I have to do to earn "Extemist"? Haha
    lolliver
  • Reply 15 of 27
    Well. 

    That's not creepy. 
  • Reply 16 of 27
    This isn't working at the moment and FB is "fixing it". Hmm. 
  • Reply 17 of 27
    jfc1138jfc1138 Posts: 3,090member
    Interesting function. Most things FB provides is at the least interesting when not specifically useful. 
  • Reply 18 of 27
    lolliverlolliver Posts: 493member
    I had disabled some of the targeted advertising features in the Facebook settings on my Mac a few months ago. This article prompted me to go into the settings on my iPhone (Safari as I don't use the app) and see what else I could find.

    The targeted advertising was set to on - "for this device  only as you have opted out of targeted advertising on another device".

    Thanks for respecting my requests facebook. So does this mean I have to go into the account settings on any device I use to access facebook and set up the privacy settings on each one?

    The other thing I noticed was that removing things facebook has determined I am interested in really messes with their algorithms. Because I have done this a few times now the list of my main interests has become rather comical. My main interests were toast, biscuits and livestock... I'm sure facebook still keep a record of the interests I "removed" though.
  • Reply 19 of 27
    Looks like FB shut it down...

    "we're working on it..."
  • Reply 20 of 27
    "Upload a face and we can write a book about it". FB is the new stalker.
    chia
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