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Fnord666 writes:

At this point, it's well-known that Facebook is as much an advertising company as it is a social network. The company is probably second only to Google in the data it collects on users, but the info we all share on the Facebook site just isn't enough. A report from ProPublica published this week digs into the vast network of third-party data that Facebook can purchase to fill out what it knows about its users. The fact that Facebook is buying data on its users isn't new -- the company first signed a deal with data broker Datalogix in 2012 -- but ProPublica's report nonetheless contains a lot of info on the visibility Facebook may have into your life.

Currently, Facebook works with six data partners in the US: Acxiom, Epsilon, Experian, Oracle Data Cloud, TransUnion and WPP. For the most part, these providers deal in financial info; ProPublica notes that the categories coming from these sources include things like "total liquid investible assets $1-$24,999," "People in households that have an estimated household income of between $100K and $125K and "Individuals that are frequent transactor at lower cost department or dollar stores." Specifically, the report notes that this data is focused on Facebook users' offline behavior, not just what they do online.

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/30/facebook-buys-data-on-users-offline-habits-for-better-ads/

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