Facebook Receives User Data from Thousands of Companies, Study Reveals

Consumer Reports and The Markup's study highlights the extensive and often hidden data sharing practices, calling for policy changes to improve transparency and user control.

Consumer Reports and The Markup conducted a study revealing that Facebook receives data from an average of 2,230 companies per user, with some users' data being shared by over 7,000 companies.
Data brokers, such as San Francisco-based LiveRamp, were the most common sources of personal data, with retailers like Home Depot, Walmart, Amazon, and Macy's also frequently seen in the study.
Meta's data collection practices include server-to-server tracking, where personal data goes from a company's servers to Meta's servers, a form of tracking that is normally hidden from users.
Despite Meta's claim of transparency, the study found that the identity of many data providers is unclear from the names disclosed to users, and companies that provide services to advertisers often ignore opt-out requests.
Consumer Reports calls for policy proposals covering data collection practices, including the adoption of 'data minimization' strategies, expanding the powers of 'authorized agents', increasing ad transparency, and improving the quality and readability of data made available to consumers.