Signal, a privacy-focused messaging app revealed
that some Instagram ads were blocked from the platform after it tried showing
users how much user data Instagram gathers to push targeted ads.
As explained by Signal in a blog post, "We created a
multi-variant targeted ad designed to show you the personal data that Facebook
collects about you and sells access to. The ad would simply display some of the
information collected about the viewer which the advertising platform uses.
Facebook was not into that idea."
The ads created by Signal show some personal information of
a user, such as their location, professional role, education, interests, hobbies,
relationship status, and other important data points.
Signal further added that "Facebook is more than
willing to sell visibility into people's lives, unless it's to tell people
about how their data is being used. Being transparent about how ads use
people's data is apparently enough to get banned; in Facebook's world, the only
acceptable usage is to hide what you're doing from your audience."
Signal has observed a rise in its usage recently, after its
rival messaging platform WhatsApp upgraded its privacy policy, causing users to
turn to alternative messaging apps.
