Privacy-focused messaging app Signal has invoked the ire of Facebook after it created a series of advertisements designed to show Instagram users how their data is being used for micro-targeting.
In a blog post this week, Signal’s head of growth Jun Harada said the app – owned by the non-profit Signal Foundation – found its ad-buying account banned by Facebook after trying to make a campaign of provocative advertisements on Instagram.
“We created a multi-variant targeted ad designed to show you the personal data that Facebook collects about you and sells access to,” Harada said.
“The ad would simply display some of the information collected about the viewer which the advertising platform uses.
“Facebook was not into that idea.”
Each of the ads would have been unique, designed to show users the type of granular data mined and stored by Facebook to run its lucrative targeted advertising business.
