Not sure how you got to that conclusion. A simple ad blocker and not using fb would solve this issue entirely. Transaction data like restaurant purchases is only useful in this scenario if it’s linkable to other online tracking data on you.
This data can be sold or leaked. And is readily accessible to governments.
Not using fb can't protect you from fb independently creating shadow profiles with triangulation.
Then use a restaurant details blocker? Celebrities have been doing this since the beginning of time. Use an alias. The notion that physical places of business are collecting our data for their own purpose is not really a new one.
Yes, this is what I was calling out in my original comment. We need to remember to treat physical establishments as attackers.
No, it doesn't. This issue is unrelated to using the web or Facebook.
> Transaction data like restaurant purchases is only useful in this scenario if it’s linkable to other online tracking data on you.
It's also useful if it's linkable to to other offline tracking. But that's beside the point -- the point is that I don't want this data to be sent to these companies without my consent. Whether or not it's actually useful to those companies is a completely separate issue.
>"Suppose I go to a restaurant, and I booked using my name and phone number. The restaurant sends that data to Facebook to say "Terence Eden ate at this restaurant on this day." Facebook can then tell if I saw an advert which led me to make a purchase."
An ad blocker and not having FB isn't going to stop a restaurant from participating in this FB program. And if you follow the short URL of the Twitter user the author quotes, it links to a Privacy International report that states:
Facebook routinely tracks users, non-users and logged-out users outside its platform through Facebook Business Tools. App developers share data with Facebook through the Facebook Software Development Kit (SDK)"[1]
So the combination of some random app on someones phone built with FB's SDK and a brick and mortar retail establishment using Facebook Business Tools seems like it is enough to thwart even a fairly ardent privacy advocate. I'm not seeing how an ad blocker would help against the combination of these two things. It's also well known that FB maintains shadow profiles and buys offline data.
[1] https://privacyinternational.org/report/2647/how-apps-androi...
The next step someone would probably say is that other sites you transact on might also be selling your info to FB, but again how is that valuable if they can't know who you are until you either login or enter your payment details? Generally speaking, your profile info is only valuable for advertising (people want to get you to their property to buy things - once you're already there your profile value is a lot lower). If you effectively shut down the advertising funnel entirely what's the issue here. Yes, it's bad from a general privacy standpoint, but what else?
Shadow profiles are valuable to FB as it provides data on the interests of a FB user's real life friends. I don't doubt there's categories along the lines of "has 2 or more friends who regularly frequent wine bars in West London" or something similar.
You just killed my aunt.