Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Co can track up to 52 percent of the pages that Internet users visit. To do this, they load trackers using like, share or login buttons, evaluate the surfing behavior of their users and thus draw conclusions about people who are not logged in there themselves. This is the conclusion reached by a study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) and the universities of Zurich, Lausanne and Yale.
Data from 5,000 users was calculated
For the study, the economists calculated what data Facebook could theoretically store based on user data from almost 5,000 people. Their result: Around 40 percent of the time spent by users on the Internet could be tracked using the platform's technical capabilities.
“Because companies provide little information about which algorithms they use, no one can say with certainty what data is actually stored and used. However, our investigation shows that the technical basis for observing a large part of Internet activity is available on online platforms.”
Hannes Ullrich, research associate at DIW Berlin
Individual consumer profiles
The observed Internet trends are suitable for creating individual consumer profiles. According to the experts, it is attractive for companies to create such profiles because they can sell targeted advertising to providers of products and services.
To create consumer profiles, the platforms use so-called trackers, which are automatically loaded, for example, via like, share or login buttons - regardless of whether the person recorded is logged into the platform themselves or whether this button is clicked. In this way, Facebook could link the pages visited by its users with the user data stored on Facebook and draw conclusions about other visitors to these pages.
According to the study authors, this method can be used to correctly estimate demographic characteristics such as age, gender or the educational level of non-users of the platforms with up to 65 percent certainty.
“By comparing data from registered people, consumer profiles can also be created for non-users, which the platforms or third parties can use for targeted advertising.”
Source: Press release , DIW
This might also be of interest: Facebook and Instagram: Meta data policy in fact check!
If you enjoyed this post and value the importance of well-founded information, become part of the exclusive Mimikama Club! Support our work and help us promote awareness and combat misinformation. As a club member you receive:
📬 Special Weekly Newsletter: Get exclusive content straight to your inbox.
🎥 Exclusive video* “Fact Checker Basic Course”: Learn from Andre Wolf how to recognize and combat misinformation.
📅 Early access to in-depth articles and fact checks: always be one step ahead.
📄 Bonus articles, just for you: Discover content you won't find anywhere else.
📝 Participation in webinars and workshops : Join us live or watch the recordings.
✔️ Quality exchange: Discuss safely in our comment function without trolls and bots.
Join us and become part of a community that stands for truth and clarity. Together we can make the world a little better!
* In this special course, Andre Wolf will teach you how to recognize and effectively combat misinformation. After completing the video, you have the opportunity to join our research team and actively participate in the education - an opportunity that is exclusively reserved for our club members!
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

