[trutannus]

You don't call up Facebook and ask for a few TB of data. You use ad targeting services which are essentially an abstraction on top of a personal data aggregation and analysis system.

[jp555]

Right, Facebook’s ability to make money comes from how well it keeps user data secret, so it can sell abstracted access to advertisers.

[freeflight]

It's selling data with extra steps, still selling data.

[jp555]

That's just obtuse. It’s clearly not selling user data at all. When I buy FB ads I cannot not get any user data. I can pick they type of user I want to see my advert, but I cannot know who they are.

If you have a FB account you can try this and see for yourself right now for a few bucks.

But maybe I'm wrong. Can tell me how they do sell user data?

[trutannus]

You're correct. If they sold the data, then they would sell themselves out of their own market.