How local political ads are popping up on your Facebook feed

SARASOTA, FL (WWSB) - Check your Facebook feed right now and you probably see political ads.

On TV you can’t seem to get away from the commercials. There are ads every commercial break - sometimes more than one, but following you onto Facebook is a relatively new tactic.

“Ads are cleverly and carefully tailored to the audiences of people who are watching them," Stephen Engelberg, the Editor-in-Chief of ProPublica, said. “Depending on your political preferences, you get very different ads.”

What you like on Facebook, websites you visit and videos you watch all play a role in how ads are targeted for you.

You can find out who is tracking you by visiting ProPublica’s Political Ad Collector and installing a new plug-in. It only takes a few minutes and it allows you to quickly tag the ads in your Facebook feed as political or not. The plug-in only works on Chrome and Firefox browsers.