“Facebook lets users see and edit their ad profile, but Katina Michael, a professor in the University of Wollongong’s Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, said the research demonstrates how “under the microscope” we are online.

”If Facebook really told you exactly how you were profiled and targeted for a particular ad, you’d be there for pages and you’d be in shock,” she said.

”What would come up would be ... your health insurance provider is, plus your kids go to a private school, plus you visited a website for this kind of vehicle, plus you said this on Facebook last week.”

More comprehensive ad explanations could help empower users to control their data, although the study does not investigate how.

”We want people to understand why they saw a specific Facebook ad,” Matt Hural, Facebook product manager said in a statement.

”In our research and testing, people have consistently told us they prefer a few reasons why an ad was delivered, so they can adjust their settings to better tailor the ads they see.

”We’re also planning in the coming months to give people easier ways to understand and control the data we use from partners.”

Experian and Acxiom declined to comment. Quantium was approached for comment.”

Citation: Ariel Bogle, March 19, 2018, ABC Science: Online, http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-03-19/facebook-targeted-ads-are-explanations-transparent-enough/9539784