Algorithms of Trauma 2: 'Anxious about your health? Facebook won't let you forget'

This case study, part of Panoptykon Foundation's "Algorithms of Trauma" series, examines how Facebook's ad-delivery algorithms target users who show signs of anxiety around health and illness after they engage with related content.

The case documents that Facebook's ad-delivery system continues to surface distressing health-related ads to users who have previously shown interest in or vulnerability around such topics, in effect exploiting emotional vulnerability to keep serving related material. It notes that Meta's own "sensitive interests" control, which lets users limit third-party advertisers' ability to target them based on inferred sensitive categories, does not curb Facebook's own internal profiling and ad-delivery logic, since that setting governs advertiser targeting rather than the platform's underlying recommendation and delivery systems.

The case is presented as evidence that the opt-out privacy controls offered to users are narrower in scope than the profiling practices they are meant to address, and that platform-level ad delivery, not just third-party targeting, warrants regulatory scrutiny.