Facebook is potentially selling out your emotions. Literally:
Bottom Line: On one hand you intellectually know this is possible and even likely. On the other hand you probably hadn't considered it. Everything you do on Facebook is being sold. When you're sad or happy. What makes you sad or happy. Your likes, your comments, your pictures...It all creates one big picture of you that's packaged and potentially sold to the highest bidding advertiser that Facebook's targeting. Now that's not the way Facebook will ever position what they've aggregated but realistically that's the outcome in some form or fashion.
Attention on the emotions topic is a hot button of late after a seemingly shocking bit of news broke overseas a few days ago when the "The Australian", a leading news outlet in Australia, reported that Facebook was selling the following emotions of minors after an advertiser was shared the following information: targeting "stressed," "anxious," "nervous" or other negative emotions. The report says that advertisers could use this information to target teens "when they are potentially more vulnerable,"
Facebook is denying that it's selling the information but did state that company policy was violated with this information being exposed to an advertiser. He's the question to answer...Facebook is keeping tabs on everything you do on the site. It makes money by targeting advertisers to users. It has a history of studying emotions (there was a 700,000 person study in 2014 that led to the eventual launch of the emotions feature in the first place). So it's likely that your emotions are being manipulatively used in some capacity by the site. Even if it's just advertising options that pop up. But they also have their magical formulas that determine what populates your field and with what priority. There's plenty of room for healthy skepticism here. Facebook's in a position to profit off of everyone of life's negative circumstances if the information's targeted that way. I think most would probably frown at the idea of Facebook profiting specifically due to one's divorce, death of a loved one, lost job, etc.
What the story from the Australian really indicates is that it might be already going on. Even if Facebook is just programmed by engineers to do so.