Facebook recently filed for a patent known as ‘Offline Trajectories’ which is apparently a technology that will utilize data Facebook has compiled of your locations, the locations or your friends and family, and even that of strangers to try to predict where you are going to go.
Why Facebook would apply for such a patent is obvious: ads. It’s already public knowledge that Facebook targets ads based on what’s going on on your timeline, as well as your browser history. Did you look up a pair of shoes, and then coincidentally see an ad for the same shoes on Facebook an hour later? Not a coincidence. Now it looks like Facebook is going to try to figure out where you are going. After all, maybe there’s a sale at a store on the drive over that they can put into your face.
There has been much talk about the data farming of big tech companies such as Google and Facebook and whether or not these companies are getting too invasive. Not helping the problem is the fact that both companies have had several data breach scandals. Many people are already cancelling their Facebook accounts, and this new patent may spur more to do the same.
