Deceptive Patterns
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Identifying User Needs for Advertising Controls on Facebook

Author
Hana Habib, Sarah Pearman, Ellie Young, Ishika Saxena, Robert Zhang, L. Cranor
Date
30 Mar 2022
Publisher
Proc. ACM Hum. Comput. Interact.
Focus
Privacy & Data Protection
Category
Academic Scholar

An online survey and remote usability study is conducted to explore user needs related to advertising controls on Facebook and determine how well existing controls align with these needs, providing a set of user requirements for advertising controls that would better align such controls with users’ needs and expectations.

We conducted an online survey and remote usability study to explore user needs related to advertising controls on Facebook and determine how well existing controls align with these needs. Our survey results highlight a range of user objectives related to controlling Facebook ads, including being able to select what ad topics are shown or what personal information is used in ad targeting. Some objectives are achievable with Facebook’s existing controls, but participants seemed to be unaware of them, suggesting issues of discoverability. In our remote usability study, participants noted areas in which the usability of Facebook’s advertising controls could be improved, including the location, layout, and explanation of controls.