After publication, Maca Ferguson, a spokesperson for Volunteers of America Western Washington, said the pixel was used for fundraising efforts and “not intended to collect personally identifiable information for purposes of tracking or transmitting this data back to Meta, its subsidiaries, or any third party for any reason” and that any data was sent “without our knowledge or consent.” Ferguson told The Markup the organization has since removed the pixel.
It’s possible these crisis websites were using Facebook for fundraising efforts without reading the fine print of what adding a “click here to go to Facebook and donate” actually captures. It’s part of what makes these integrations with large social media corporations so insidious.
Out of 33 of these crisis center websites they looked at:
In follow-up tests, four organizations appeared to have completely removed the code. The majority of the centers we contacted did not respond to requests for comment.
Ignorance may have been an excuse prior to this investigation, but it’s not an excuse now.
It looks like the important part is here:
It’s possible these crisis websites were using Facebook for fundraising efforts without reading the fine print of what adding a “click here to go to Facebook and donate” actually captures. It’s part of what makes these integrations with large social media corporations so insidious.
Out of 33 of these crisis center websites they looked at:
Ignorance may have been an excuse prior to this investigation, but it’s not an excuse now.