Facebook is adding more transparency into why you see certain ads on its site

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In an effort to be more transparent in how and why you see certain ads, Facebook will now show you where brands are getting the data that led to you being targeted in the first place.

On Thursday, Facebook released a news post that went into detail on why you see certain ads and how to adjust that experience (spoiler: you can’t get rid of ads, so don’t even try). The company also used the blog space to highlight the new transparency features, as well.

Facebook adds more transparency to ads and ad targetting

Starting this week, users will be able to gain a better understanding as to why they are being targetted as well as where the data that made it possible came from. The “Why am I seeing this ad?” feature will become more robust, showing you things like interests and categories that you matched with.

TheNextWeb notes that you’ll also be able to see if your information came from a data broker, with additional controls allowing you to opt-out of ads from a particular advertiser. And no, you can’t game the system, there will always be another advertiser ready to serve you a steaming hot ad.

Ad Preferences are also getting an update thanks to a new tab within the section. This new tab will show advertisers who uploaded a list with your information and businesses who uploaded and shared a list with your information.

Honestly, it’s good to see this, but I’ll be curious to see just how transparent it actually is.

What do you think? Glad to see Facebook doing more to show you how and why you are being targeted? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Josiah Motley

Former KnowTechie editor.