Though Facebook does not offer advertisers categories that explicitly identify people’s health conditions, The Markup identified dozens of ads for prescription pharmaceuticals targeted at people with “interests” in topics like “bourbon,” “oxygen,” and “Diabetes mellitus awareness.”

Indeed, The Markup found, “awareness” of a disease is a frequent proxy for illness in targeting decisions made by advertisers.

Lecher, C. (2021, May 6). How big pharma finds sick users on Facebook. The Markup. https://themarkup.org/citizen-browser/2021/05/06/how-big-pharma-finds-sick-users-on-facebook