Facebook knows if you're left wing or right wing - here's how you can see it

It has been a rough year for friendship, and you’ve probably lost a few on Facebook once you realised their views were lowkey racist (or sexist).

It happens.

Facebook is the platform upon which conservatives, liberals, anarchists and others unload their views and engage in debate.

Between the US elections, terror attacks, and Brexit, there's been a lot to talk about.

And no matter how hard you try to stay off the social media platform, you’ve probably been tempted to wade into the furore and give your two pennies’ worth.

While you’ve been posting about Trump, sharing anecdotes about the US and UK elections, do you know what Facebook has been doing?

Collecting data. Lots and lots of data.

So much data in fact, that it can probably accurately guess your political preference – be it liberal, moderate or conservative - by now. Here’s how you can check.

Log in to your Facebook account and go to Settings, and then ‘Advert Preferences’. Facebook’s algorithm creates adverts for you based on categories, including pages you have liked or pages Facebook thinks you will like based on your activity.

Click ‘More’ and scroll down to the ‘Lifestyle and Culture’. Once there, you should have a list of labelled boxes which show what Facebook advertises for you.

My colleague Josh Withey got Democrat despite the fact that he’d never interacted with the Democrat Party page on Facebook.

And while Josh considers himself to hold left wing beliefs synonymous with the US Democrat Party, so Facebook was correct - it isn't always so.

He also got this for the Food category:

Cheese and grilling are okay, but cherry...blossom?

I also got this:

FYI, I'm definitely not a vegetarian and I don't even know why yoghurt is there.

Still, it's interesting to see how your Facebook activity has impacted on your targeted adverts.

Give it a go.

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