A good way to think of the way they make those profiles is a jigsaw missing a piece. By using the surrounding pieces that are present you can work out some info about the piece that is missing. Might not get everything but the actual result will also be far more detailed than just the jigsaw analogy since it will be using data taken from [the surrounding] others referencing you in various ways, be it directly naming you or otherwise. The more surrounding pieces the more accurate the profile ends up and all done without any participation of the one in question.
Reminds me of the excuse that google does with "all the information is anonymized". But with enough data points, you can eventually tie the anon info to a specific individual.
Correct, they create ghost accounts, using both the facebook like button widget to track internet activity and using their app to scan the contacts list of users. So if your number is in the phone of 5 dimwits who use social media apps, they have a profile already built on you.
And that was 16 years ago, it's probably much more detailed now.
Not only that, you don't even need a Facebook account to be tracked by Facebook.
A good way to think of the way they make those profiles is a jigsaw missing a piece. By using the surrounding pieces that are present you can work out some info about the piece that is missing. Might not get everything but the actual result will also be far more detailed than just the jigsaw analogy since it will be using data taken from [the surrounding] others referencing you in various ways, be it directly naming you or otherwise. The more surrounding pieces the more accurate the profile ends up and all done without any participation of the one in question.
Reminds me of the excuse that google does with "all the information is anonymized". But with enough data points, you can eventually tie the anon info to a specific individual.
This is called mosaic theory.
Correct, they create ghost accounts, using both the facebook like button widget to track internet activity and using their app to scan the contacts list of users. So if your number is in the phone of 5 dimwits who use social media apps, they have a profile already built on you.
And that was 16 years ago, it's probably much more detailed now.