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when a user gives Facebook a phone number for two-factor authentication or in order to receive alerts about new log-ins to a user’s account, that phone number became targetable by an advertiser within a couple of weeks

I’ve been trying to get Facebook to disclose shadow contact information to users for almost a year now. But it has even refused to disclose these shadow details to users in Europe, where privacy law is stronger and explicitly requires companies to tell users what data it has on them.

To test the shadow information finding, the researchers tried a real-world test. They uploaded a list of hundreds of landline numbers from Northeastern University. These are numbers that people who work for Northeastern are unlikely to have added to their accounts, though it’s very likely that the numbers would be in the address books of people who know them and who might have uploaded them to Facebook in order to “find friends.” The researchers found that many of these numbers could be targeted with ads, and when they ran an ad campaign, the ad turned up in the Facebook news feed of Mislove, whose landline had been included in the file; I confirmed this with my own test targeting his landline number.

“I think that many users don’t fully understand how ad targeting works today: that advertisers can literally specify exactly which users should see their ads by uploading the users’ email addresses, phone numbers, names+dates of birth, etc,” said Mislove. “In describing this work to colleagues, many computer scientists were surprised by this, and were even more surprised to learn that not only Facebook, but also Google, Pinterest, and Twitter all offer related services. Thus, we think there is a significant need to educate users about how exactly targeted advertising on such platforms works today.”

There are certainly creepier practices happening in the advertising industry, but it’s troubling this is happening at Facebook because of its representations about letting you control your ad experience. It’s disturbing that Facebook is reducing the privacy of people who want their accounts to be more secure by using the information they provide for that purpose to data-mine them for ads.

When I asked the company last year about whether it used shadow contact information for ads, it gave me inaccurate information, and it hadn’t made the practice clear in its extensive messaging to users about ads

Targeted advertising bears important implications for consumers. It could mean seeing advertisements based not just on what they “like” on Facebook, but on what they eat for breakfast, whether they buy khakis or jeans and whether they are more likely to give their wives roses or tulips on their wedding anniversary. It means that even things people don’t reveal on Facebook may be discovered from their online and offline proclivities.

Media buyers said advertisers would be more interested in video ads if Facebook allowed them to better target specific sets of users. Facebook currently allows advertisers to target video ads by gender and age, but not by interests, as it does for traditional ads.

"This news further confirms that Facebook has abandoned social marketing in favor of standard push-style ads," said Forrester Research

Video advertising isn't available to all advertisers, and Facebook didn't say when it would expand the offering.

Snapchat's focus on "sound-on" video ads has been appealing to its entertainment clients.

The behavior on the app is very different as you want to focus more on shorter content, whereas on Instagram, people tend to watch longer videos."

Snapchat says its vertical video ads are "as good as television" — and in some ways better — because users can choose to skip ads, swipe up to interact with them, and advertisers can use more granular targeting than TV. But with AdAge reporting in November that the average Snapchat video ad lasts less than three seconds and Snapchat counting a video "view" as soon as the video opens, it remains to be seen whether its ads are more effective than those on TV

"In the days and weeks and months following the game, if you [Shazam] a Jaguar ad during the Super Bowl, we can allow Jaguar to remarket to you," said Shazam Chief Revenue Officer Kevin McGurn, who was senior VP-sales at Hulu until Mr. Riley lured him away in September. Those ads could ask people to take a test drive or solicit sign-ups for the auto brand's email newsletters.

The retargeting program could spark or renew interest from advertisers that were previously intrigued by Shazam but unwilling to invest. Previously advertisers that partnered with Shazam were betting on people tagging their TV ads and were further limited because they could only market to those people within the app.

“Twitter ads…generate clicks at a much higher rate as advertisers integrate them tightly with broad trends and conversations, serving up straightforward messaging and content directly into relevant conversation streams.”

– 72.6% -- say their ROI from Twitter desktop and mobile ads are virtually the same, a great sign for Twitter's mobile business. Ad Age readers ranked it the third most-effective ad platform behind Google and Facebook, and ahead of LinkedIn, Yahoo and AOL in that order.

Snapchat is optional, not compulsory, on media plans

Snapchat is pushing buyers to place more ads inside its show, as evidenced by a charm offensive launched this year to create short-form original shows it can sell around the Discover part of the app.

a lack of measurement data, disinterest among social media celebrities, confusion about the platform, and general indifference towards advertising agencies — are leading more of their clients to abandon it.

Trend Pie's Ricci said. Out of 100,000 "views," he estimated only 1 percent actually saw the ad.

"Instagram is built for finding what you don't follow easily, Snapchat isn't. If Snapchat can figure that out, that will help, because why make content people can't find?"

When Snap went public, he noticed a rush of influencers asking them to include their Snap accounts as available for advertisers. Since then, many have abandoned their accounts to focus on more lucrative platforms

Snapchat now works with 15 outside partners that help sell its inventory, and in January it struck a deal with Oracle Data Cloud to show ads based on what its users buy in the real world.