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Facebook Shadow Profiles

Author

Listed:
  • Luis Aguiar

    (UZH - Universität Zürich [Zürich] = University of Zurich)

  • Christian Peukert

    (UNIL - Université de Lausanne = University of Lausanne)

  • Maximilian Schäfer

    (Yale University [New Haven], UNIBO - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna = University of Bologna)

  • Hannes Ullrich

    (DIW Berlin - Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, ITU - IT University of Copenhagen)

Abstract

We quantify Facebook's ability to build shadow profiles by tracking individuals across the web, irrespective of whether they are users of the social network. For a representative sample of US Internet users, we find that Facebook is able to track about 40 percent of the browsing time of both users and non-users of Facebook, including on privacy-sensitive domains and across user demographics. We show that the collected browsing data can produce accurate predictions of personal information that is valuable for advertisers, such as age or gender. Because Facebook users reveal their demographic information to the platform, and because the browsing behavior of users and non-users of Facebook overlaps, users impose a data externality on non-users by allowing Facebook to infer their personal information.

Suggested Citation

  • Luis Aguiar & Christian Peukert & Maximilian Schäfer & Hannes Ullrich, 2024. "Facebook Shadow Profiles," Working Papers hal-04495641, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04495641
    DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2202.04131
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    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Maximilian Schaefer, 2025. "When Should we Expect Non-Decreasing Returns from Data in Prediction Tasks?," Papers 2503.03602, arXiv.org.
    3. Martin Kögler & Katharina Paulick & Jürgen Scheffran & Mario Birkholz, 2024. "Sustainable use of a smartphone and regulatory needs," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 6182-6200, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D18 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Protection
    • L4 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies
    • L5 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software

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