Facebook guesses users' political leanings and labels them

Facebook guesses users' political leanings and labels them

Facebook has ideas about your politics, and you can easily discover what the company thinks it knows about you.

Recent reports of improper data use have left the company under fire in Europe and the US, after the firm allegedly allowed software company Cambridge Analytica to access personal data about 50 million users.

Lawmakers, Facebook users and advertisers alike are upset about the scandal, which has brought to light much information on Facebook users that the company has collected over the years.

Users can easily see which political party Facebook thinks they're affiliated with by going to the Ad Preferences section.

Here, there is a 'Your Categories' tab that houses a 'US Politics' subsection.

Facebook lets you know here whether the company thinks you are Very Conservative, Conservative, Moderate, Liberal or Very Liberal.

The site said it makes these decision 'based on information [users have] provided on Facebook and other activity' according to Fox News.

The 'Your Categories' section also lets users see information on their birthdays and whether or not Facebook thinks they are affiliated with expats. Additionally a 'multicultural affinity' section can be found here.

The five options for political affiliations simplify users' ideologies to a handful of vague categories.

Facebook 'determines' users' political affiliations regardless of whether or not they have publicly shown interest in a particular candidate or party on the site.

The platform groups together users that have liked the same pages and makes assumptions about their political beliefs based on these 'likes'.

A recent poll suggested that a mere 41 percent of people in the US trust Facebook in handling their personal data.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg declined to testify before British lawmakers to discuss the data scandal plaguing his company, which relies heavily on advertisers.

However, Zuckerberg has allegedly expressed willingness to testify in the US.

Cambridge Analytica has been linked to Donald Trump's campaigning during the 2016 presidential election.

The firm, which is based in the UK, has denied allegations of wrongdoing.