Each Facebook User is Monitored by Thousands of Companies

Consumer Reports, assisted by The Markup, recruited 709 volunteers to share three years of their downloaded Facebook data archives, then analyzed the server-to-server tracking information Meta receives directly from other companies, data flows normally invisible to users. On average, participants had activity reported to Facebook by roughly 2,230 different companies, with 186,892 distinct companies appearing across the sample overall and some individuals tracked by more than 7,000 companies; the data broker LiveRamp appeared for 96 percent of participants, alongside major retailers, credit bureaus, and payment platforms.

The researchers note the sample was self-selected and not demographically representative, likely skewing toward more privacy-conscious and technically savvy users, so the findings describe the scale of possible tracking rather than a population-wide estimate. The study concludes that this volume of third-party data sharing occurs entirely outside typical user awareness, illustrating how extensively commercial activity off Facebook is nonetheless funneled back to the platform.