Belgian police have warned people not to use Facebook's reactions feature when scrolling through the popular social media site.
By now we're all slowly getting used to the fact we have a 'love', 'haha', 'wow', 'sad' and 'angry' reaction alongside the 'like' button. However, Belgian authorities believe that the reactions are a way for Facebook to collect information about people.
Apparently, the information collected will then be used to decide how Facebook should advertise to individuals, so police have urged people to avoid using the buttons if they want to preserve their privacy.
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A statement on the Belgian police official website said: "The reactions we express, make it possible to know us better and if states Facebook us to provide the best possible experience in terms of our profile that emerges more sharply.
"But Facebook is also a marketing champion. From now measure our responses to the posts of our friends or watched pages. The icons help not only express your feelings, they Facebook also help assess the effectiveness of the ads on your profile."
The theory is that Facebook can build up a bank of what you like, find funny, and dislike, and then cater what appears on the page directly to you.
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The statement continued: "By limiting the number of icons to six, Facebook is counting on you to express your thoughts more easily so that the algorithms that run in the background, are more effective. By mouse clicks let you know what makes you happy.
"So this will help Facebook's ideal location on your profile and also to determine the time to view content that can arouse your interest."
Will you still use it?
Words by Mark McGowan
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Police, Belgium, Facebook