Policy Observatory

Facebook expanded its ever-growing advertising and tracking reach this week with new integration between the giant social network and Atlas, an advertising platform it purchased from Microsoft. The company now lets advertisers target you across all of your devices and on participating websites, based on characteristics from your Facebook profile such as age, gender, and location. It will also attempt to track the products you buy both online and off, in order to measure the ads' effects on our purchases.

A Californian start-up will be allowed to advertise a mail order DNA test that screens for a rare genetic condition. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said the 23andMe product would "provide people with information about possible mutations in their genes that could be passed on to their children".