Facebook Political Ads: How much information is too much?

This is a follow-up to the story posted on June 1st. (Here's the link ) https://patch.com/california/s...

Recently, on May 22,2018 Facebook changed their policy on posting political ads. Prior to this policy being put into effect candidates and campaign managers were able to post multiple ads freely. Facebook claimed that they needed to fully verify the identities of those posting political ads. This included verifying identification, social security numbers, and addresses of each person who posts ads. This change was announced via Facebook news on May 24, 2018. For some grassroots and local candidates they had the misfortune of being notified on the eve of the June 5th Primary Elections. When opting in and giving this private information, Facebook stated that it could take up to July 13, 2018 in order to approve them for posting political ads. Which was beyond the June Primary date. Fast forward to yesterday. Those who opted to give their information and become fully verified received both a letter via regular mail, and another letter via FedEx with a completion code to confirm their identities. The letters stated that the verification code may be entered and verified by July 18, 2018. The return address listed as :

Facebook

1 Hacker Way

Menlo Park, CA 94025-1456

Some may ask why is this news? This put a wrinkle in several small campaigns with strategic timing prior to the election date. The issues of identity verification had originated during the last presidential election on November 7,2017. There have been a couple of Special Elections dates since that election and only now the eve of the June Primary does this issue and change come about.

For some people, they post where they work, hobbies, places they go, photos, spending habits, places you shop, and etc....Then to give them your identification, social security numbers, addresses, lists of friends, and family. This is more than enough information to steal your identity. In addition, this brings about more questions on how we use the internet and social media. How much information should we give out? How much personal information do you think corporations like Facebook have on us? Where does it end?

For some more information there is a video about Facebook and their recent court case by Bernie Sanders.