Belgian police have issued a warning about using Facebook Reactions

Police in Belgium have issued a warning to Facebook users that using the site's reactions feature to express their feelings might actually reveal a lot more public information than they realise.

The authorities claim reacting to things using the now universal 'love', 'haha', 'wow', 'sad' and 'angry' reactions means the tech giant can gather information about your mood and direct ads to you based on that information. The statement on the Belgian police official website says:

"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." "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."

The authorities advise that in order to protect your privacy and avoid targeted adverts, it’s best to ignore the reactions. That said, recent research suggests that Facebook reactions might make up as little as 3 per cent of all interactions on the site, so maybe we don't have to worry too much just yet.