Headline April 18, 2018/ ''' *FACEBOOK -!WOW!- FABULOUS* '''

''' *FACEBOOK -!WOW!- FABULOUS* '''

FACEBOOK INC Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg fielded 10 hours of questions over two days from nearly 100 US lawmakers and-

Emerged largely unscathed and considerably richer. His performance had favourable results. Facebook shares closed up 0.78 percent on Wednesday after rising 4.5 percent Tuesday.

He parried questions of how much control people have over their data on the World's largest social media network without a major gaffe, while avoiding being cornered into supporting new government regulations.

The hearings that ended on Wednesday revealed no consensus among US lawmakers about what kind of privacy legislation they might want to pursue, if any, and no timelines for action.

As he did on Tuesday before a Senate hearing, Zuckerberg refused during a House of Representatives committee hearing to make any promises to support new legislation or change how the social network does business.

''It is inevitable that there will need to be some regulation,'' of Internet firms, Zuckerberg said, but he avoided any specifics.

*How does Facebook make so much money?*

*And how do Facebook ads target you?*

IF YOU WISH TO TAILOR A FACEBOOK ad to a single user out of its universe of 2.2 billion, you could.

Trying to pitch your boutique bed and breakfast to a 44-year-old ''trendy mom'' who lives in Seattle, leans conservative and is currently travelling in the Toronto area but hasn't booked a hotel for the night yet? Go right ahead.

Interested in mail ordering pet treats to a 32-year-old cat owner in Madison, Wisconsin who enjoys Japanese foods, doesn't like pizza and has an an anniversary coming up in the nest two months? Not a problem.

Targeting ads, it turns out, is almost infinitely customizable - sometimes in surprising ways.

The ads you might see can be tailored to you down to the most granular details - not just where you live and what websites you visited recently, but whether you've gotten engaged in the past six months-

Are interested in organic food or share characteristics with people who have recently bought a BMW, even if you've never expressed interest in doing so yourself. 

Facebook made $40 billion in advertising revenue last year, second only to Google when it comes to its share of the global digital advertising market.

Even with a recent decision to stop working with outside data brokers to help advertisers target ads based on things like offline purchasing or credit history, this number is expected to grow sharply this year.

Here are some ways advertisers can target you through Facebook:

Monitoring your Facebook activity.

By now you've probably gathered that Facebook uses things like interest, age and other demographic and geographic information to help advertisers reach you.

Then there's the stuff your friends do and like - the idea being that it's good indicator for what you might do and like.

So, if you have a friend who has liked New Yorker's Facebook  page, you might see ads for the magazine on your Facebook feed.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Facebook and advertisers can also infer stuff about you based on things you share willingly.

For example, Facebook categorizes users into an ''ethnic affinity'' based on what it thinks might be their ethnicity or ethnic influence.

It might guess this through TV shows or music you've liked. Often, Facebook is wrong - and while it's possible to remove it, you can't change it.

There is also no ''ethnic affinity'' option for whites.

While there are plenty of good reasons advertisers may want to target people of a particular ethnicity, this became a problem for Facebook in 2016, when ProPublica found that it let advertisers exclude specific ethnic group from seeing their ads.

When it comes to housing and employment ads, this is illegal. 

In late 2017, Facebook said it was temporarily blocking advertisers' ability to to target based on ethnic affairs, alongwith other things such as religious or LGBT affinity.

Advertisers can still target those groups - just not exclude them.

Facebook, which said it is conducting an audit of how the feature can be misused, did not say when it would lift the block.

The Honor and Serving of the latest Operational Research on Social Media and Networks continues.

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW! - the World Students Society and Twitter - !E-WOW! - the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Grouse & Grilling '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless