[stvswn]

Honestly, I don't think that there's a general expectation in the digital or brick-and-mortar world that when you buy something from a merchant the information related to that transaction is "your data" and they cannot use it. Certainly there are businesses that promise discretion, but that's normally a selling point for a particular reason. On the other hand, there is a reason to expect privacy when you are using Facebook for personal communications, photo sharing, etc. This scheme, then, is the more privacy safe way to do it. The T-Shirt company isn't saying "hey, Facebook, can you tell me some interesting personal info about my customers so I can target ads better?" and Facebook isn't responding with "here's all the stuff they're into based on their Facebook activity." Instead, they say "here are my transaction records" and Facebook says "OK, we'll use this to show your ads to people who are likely to want your T-Shirts." So, yes, to some extent Facebook has data on lots of stuff you do in the world because the businesses you interact with opt-in to share the data. This doesn't really bother me, just like my credit card company knowing all of my purchases doesn't bother me. If it bothers you, though, it does really work to a) periodically reset your IDFA/AdID on your mobile device, and b) delete cookies on your browsers.

[saagarjha]

> Honestly, I don't think that there's a general expectation in the digital or brick-and-mortar world that when you buy something from a merchant the information related to that transaction is "your data" and they cannot use it.

It would be nice if it were, or that they promised that they wouldn't just hand it out to everyone.

> If it bothers you, though, it does really work to a) periodically reset your IDFA/AdID on your mobile device, and b) delete cookies on your browsers.

How does this help in this case?

[JohnFen]

> I don't think that there's a general expectation in the digital or brick-and-mortar world that when you buy something from a merchant the information related to that transaction is "your data" and they cannot use it.

True, but that's not the expectation in play here. I think there is a general expectation that when you're doing business in a brick-and-mortar store, that store is not going to be reporting your business to the likes of Facebook, Google, etc.