Facebook, the biggest social networking site in the world handles its users’ data in precarious ways, people are discovering that Facebook could know information about people who don’t even have a profile.
Facebook is designed to store information about you even if you are not logged in or have an account with them.
Mark Zuckerberg at congress being questioned about Facebook’s privacy, as well as the company’s approach to data and privacy, was asked by Republican Ben Luján about the company’s use of ‘shadow profiles’ a terms used to describe the collection of non-user data.
He said: “Facebook has detailed profiles on people who have never signed up for Facebook, yes or no?”
Zuckerberg had responded: “Congressman, in general we collect data on people who have not signed up for Facebook for security purposes to prevent the kind of scraping you were just referring to [reverse searches based on public info like phone numbers].”
Lujan: “So these are called shadow profiles, is that what they’ve been referred to by some?”
Zuckerberg: “Congressman, I’m not, I’m not familiar with that.”
So, what information does Facebook know about its nonusers?
When you first join Facebook, you will be offered ‘People You May Know’ – profiles of potential friends or work colleagues.
What you might not know, is that when those friends upload their contact list onto Facebook servers, that information was used to create a ‘shadow profile’ of you so that when you join, you will be recommended as a friend.
These shadow profiles are completely private.
It means that Facebook can learn a lot about the social circle, and to an extent the habits of non-Facebook users.