That is completely wrong.
People who buy ads against Facebook and Google profiles don't get to see specific info about the users they are targeting.
In this case the firm doing the targeting is also the firm that can see all the profile data.
People who buy ads against Facebook and Google profiles don't get to see specific info about the users they are targeting.
In this case the firm doing the targeting is also the firm that can see all the profile data.
Google and Facebook both have a consumer-facing presence so you think of them as being more accountable, but they're both advertising businesses, no doubt.
That there's usually a middleman is something of a random detail. You don't look through millions of profiles and pick this ad for this person. You group people by common characteristics and then match ads to those. That a different advertising firm is going to suddenly do something so much scarier sounds more like science fiction than fact.
I agree with you but my first reading of the OP lead me to believe that she/he meant that Google and Facebook are advertising firms.
Admittedly, not as annoying as all the rest, but still, their business is advertising.