This week I learned that you can advertise for prescription medication on Facebook. I suppose this shouldn’t be entirely surprising since pharmaceutical companies advertise on television all the time, but this was the first time I noticed that these kinds of ads (including a video stream of risk information and side effects, as you can see above) were showing up on my social media feed. This made me think about the possible ethical ramifications of algorithmic-driven targeted advertising for medication. What about my internet activity makes me a viable consumer target for a certain medication? Are there certain behaviors that flag specific medical conditions and therefore a possible need for a drug? What happens when people can start making assumptions about my health conditions, accurate or otherwise? Will pushing a pharmaceutical agenda over social media put more people at risk for taking drugs that aren’t right for them or that they don’t need? Is there even a limit on what you can advertise on Facebook?