Facebook has rolled out it’s free Find Wifi service across the world. This service allows Facebook users to find free wifi hotspots as they travel.
It is an opt-in service for businesses. Businesses with free wifi have to register their service on the platform so users can find it when they search. Some larger companies are not registering their free wifi with Facebook because of the conditions of use.
Facebook users have to give access to their location data on their phone to use the service. There is no option to stop Facebook accessing the data when using the service. Although some businesses don’t like this, many other large companies are registering for the service and have no problem with it.
I know many people will have an issue with Facebook accessing this data, but I think we will all eventually get used to giving up our personal data for services that make our life easier. I don’t believe that this will be an issue in the future. There is a common saying that when you use a web service that is free, you are the product. What this means is the data you enter into the platform is becomes the product the business sells to advertisers.
Facebook are the masters at using this data to target ads to its users.
There is an option when you create a Facebook Ads campaign that enables an advertiser to show the ad to either “People who live in the location” or “People who are visiting the location.” I think Facebook will use the data it collects from people using the Find Free Wifi service to boost this data to make it more accurate.
Let me know in the comments below if you have a problem giving up your location data on your phone to find free wifi.
