Facebook is making it easier for users to understand the ads that are presented to them on the platform. The social network today announced improvements to its ad experience that present more information about the targeted ads on the platform, but also give users more options to control those ads.
The improvements seem to be a direct expansion of the features introduced a few months ago. At the time, the company started presenting users with some information about how they were targeted by specific ads, including which businesses might have uploaded their data. Now, this information will be more detailed, including what interests you may have on Facebook that led you to that ad, or pages you might have visited.
In addition to presenting that information, Facebook will give you access to tools that let you control how that information is used or adjust your interests to get more relevant ads.
In the Ad Preferences section, Facebook is also adding some more information about how your data was provided to Facebook for ad targeting. Now, there will be to tabs - one with businesses that uploaded your information and advertised to it in the past seven days, and one with businesses that uploaded your data for other advertisers to target, as well as which advertisers used that list to target you in the past 90 days.
Facebook hasn"t typically been known to be the most respectful company when it comes to users" privacy, so much so that there are extensions specifically designed to contain its tracking capabilities. Announcements like this are a small step, but they could help the social network regain some public trust.