Merlin
Facebook Political Ad Collector

Facebook Political Ad Collector

This extension collects political ads on facebook.

Facebook Political Ad Collector promo image
What is Facebook Political Ad Collector?

Facebook Political Ad Collector is a Firefox extension tool run by Cybersecurity for Democracy at New York University. It collects possible political ads from user's Facebook news feed and contributes them to a database. The tool does not collect any personal data and it's used for research and study about Facebook, political messaging and the tactics used in digital advertising.

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Merlin
Stats
Stats date:
Users: 675 ▼ -20
Rating: 4.46 (35)
Version: 2.2.14 (Last updated: 2022-11-14)
Creation date: 2017-09-05
Weekly download count: NaN
Firefox on Android: No
Manifest version: 2
Permissions:
  • storage
  • unlimitedStorage
Size: 543.31K
Email: Click to see
Risk impact: Moderate risk impact
Risk likelihood: Low risk likelihood

Chrome-Stats Rank

# 3663 ▼ 46
Other rankings
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Other platforms

Not available on Chrome
Not available on Edge
Merlin
Summary
Analyze keywords

Ad Observer is a crowdsourcing tool that will gather ads from a user's Facebook news feed—to enable investigative journalism and research.

The project has new home and a new name. It is run by the Cybersecurity for Democracy at New York University. This project used to be called the Political Ad Collector. Stewardship of the project was previously maintained by Quartz, The Globe and Mail and by ProPublica.

When users log into Facebook, the tool will collect the ads displayed on the user's news feed and guess which ones are political.

The tool does not collect any personally identifiable information. We will not know which ads are shown to which user. The political ads that are collected will be contributed to a database.

We use the ads for research and journalistic purposes: covering Facebook, political messaging and digital advertising tactics.

User reviews
User reviews summary
These summaries are automatically generated weekly using AI based on recent user reviews. Firefox Browser Add-ons does not verify user reviews, so some user reviews may be inaccurate, spammy, or outdated.
Pros
  • Very good cause and no negative side effects.
  • This is a benefit to the web and hopefully helps convince Facebook that they need far more transparency and disclosure.
  • Love tools that help increase transparency and accountability of political ad spending - this is a great and easy way to help do that!
Cons
  • It's slowing down my FB News Feed.
  • The current version seems too predictable.
Most mentioned
  • regular ads
  • political ads
View all user reviews
Safety
Risk impact

Facebook Political Ad Collector may not be safe to use and it requires some risky permissions. Exercise caution when installing this add-on. Review carefully before installing.

Risk likelihood

Facebook Political Ad Collector has earned a fairly good reputation and likely can be trusted.

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Screenshots
Facebook Political Ad Collector Facebook Political Ad Collector