Facebook ends advertising relationship with Acxiom

In April 2018, Facebook announced that in six months it would end a programme it called "Partner Categories", in which the social network acted as a bridge between data brokers like Acxiom, Epsilon, and TransUnion and the consumers their customers want to reach. In this deal, Facebook did not actually sell the data it collects; instead, it targeted ads to the lists of people the data brokers uploaded. Facebook users can see the results for themselves by going to their privacy settings and opening up the list of "Advertisers You've Interacted With". Acxiom collects "core data" from public records, the suppliers of services and goods when people purchase them, and even charities accepting donations. From the core data, Acxiom extrapolates "modelled data", which allocates people to detailed categories; it's these categories that, combined with what Facebook already knows about you, determines the ads you see. Facebook's decisions is expected to lower Acxiom's 2019 fiscal revenue by up to $25 million.

https://www.popsci.com/advertisers-targeting-facebook-account-settings#page-2

tags: Acxiom, Facebook, Epsilon, TransUnion, data brokers, credit scoring, advertising

Writer: Stan Horaczek

Publication: Popular Science