Now Facebook is keeping track of what you are buying

It took Facebook about six months to start using all that offline consumer data it's made deals for more than just "research" and put all thats rewards cards information to good lucrative use.

If you are a user of an Android-powered device that has Google Now running on it, I am quite sure that there has been moments when you found the cards offered to be uncanny, as though it functioned as your digital sixth sense. Well, that goes to show how powerful the application of collected information can be when used in the right manner, and companies like Facebook, too, would want to know more about its users. In fact, Facebook intends to keep track of its users’ shopping habits across devices to aid advertisers in their upcoming campaigns.

However: while targeted advertising seems to be the exact opposite of online anonymity, Facebook says your privacy is maintained by "hashing", as Gokul Rajaram, product director for ads at Facebook told The Atlantic Wire. As he explains it, the brands (with the help of Datalogix) provides email addresses in the forms of "hashes"—strings of letters and numbers—for the people it wants to reach: People in the database who haven't bought a car in five years, for example. Facebook then matches those with hashes of people who fit the hashes that the brand wants to meet. This adds a layer of security — no person sifts through email lists — but it has the effect of helping the computers on one side tell the computers on the other side which individuals are the target audience. The social network requires a group of at least 20 people, so even if a marketer tried really hard it couldn't figure out who within a bucket of say 100 people saw the ad. But ultimately, the most important privacy protection seems to be that neither Facebook nor the brand really care who you are. "Marketers think in terns of segments anyway," Rajaram said. And Facebook just wants to sell the most accurate ads. 

This tool used by Facebook to inform advertisers as to when a promotion was first viewed, as well as leading up to a purchase will surely bring about the specter of privacy concerns among users. What do you think of such a process? By the way, out of curiosity, have you actually purchased anything through Facebook in the first place?