Whistle-Blowers Say Facebook Clamps Honesty in Ads

The ad account of the encrypted messaging app Signal has been banned from Facebook for running what Signal calls the most honest ad campaign on the social network.

Signal Sees Its Facebook Ad Account Disabled

Signal is taking an issue with tremendous data collection happening behind the scenes on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp designed to “sell visibility into people and their lives.”

To highlight the invasiveness of the ad targeting technologies utilized across Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, the company behind Signal went on to buy some Instagram ads “to show you the personal data that Facebook collects about you and sells access to.”

“The ad would simply display some of the information collected about the viewer which the advertising platform uses,” Signal says. “Facebook was not into that idea.”

In a post on the Signal Blog , the company shared the Instagram ads that Facebook doesn’t want you to see. Furthermore, Signal took to social media to share these ads as well.

Facebook Responds to Signal’s Move

Facebook responded with the following statement to the media:

This is a stunt by Signal, who never even tried to actually run these ads—and we didn’t shut down their ad account for trying to do so. If Signal had tried to run the ads, a couple of them would have been rejected because our advertising policies prohibit ads that assert that you have a specific medical condition or sexual orientation, as Signal should know. But of course, running the ads was never their goal—it was about getting publicity.

Signal denies the accusations, saying it “absolutely did try to run the ads” but they got rejected and Facebook disabled its ad account.

“We wanted to use Instagram ads to highlight how ad tech invades your privacy,” according to Signal’s post on Twitter. “Instead, Facebook shut our account down.”

Signal’s Ads You’ll Never See on Instagram

Signal created other ads to drive its message home, with one of the ads reading as follows:

You got this ad because you’re a Goth barista and you’re single. This ad used your location to see you’re in Clinton Hill. And you’re either vegan or lactose intolerant and you’re really feeling that yoga lately.

All told, Signal created more than half a dozen ads following a similar theme, including advertisements targeted towards a single person, London-based divorcees with degrees in art history, teachers based in Moscow, K-pop loving chemical engineers, and similar.

Is This Nothing But a PR Stunt on Signal’s Part?

Signal wrapped it up nicely with the following passage in its blog post:

Facebook is more than willing to sell visibility into people’s lives, unless it’s to tell people about how their data is being used. Being transparent about how ads use people’s data is apparently enough to get banned; in Facebook’s world, the only acceptable usage is to hide what you’re doing from your audience.

Of course, Signal shouldn’t be surprised that Facebook has decided to ban it from running ads across its platforms that do appear to be an effective PR stunt on Signal’s part. Be that as it may, Signal has certainly managed to choose the perfect timing to cast a spotlight on Facebook’s invasive data collection.

Signal is a secure messaging app that uses end-to-end encryption, vanishing messages, and other features to prevent eavesdropping. While not as popular as WhatsApp or Viber, Signal saw a sudden surge in popularity following Facebook’s controversial privacy policy update on WhatsApp which drove some WhatsApp users away from that platform.