Facebook knows where you're going before you do.

Facebook will detect where you're going before sending targeted ads to your destination, thanks to a patent it's received for new technology. The application, filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, relies on users' previously recorded location data, as well as similar data about other people, to predict where and when they might travel next.

Facebook has patented an app called "Offline Trajectories," a new technology that can predict your travel patterns. The technology will work by using your previous data, as well as other people's data, to guess your next location. The exact wording of the application describes the process as “based at least in part on previously recorded location data.”

This means that Facebook will use historical geolocation data to predict where you will be in the future.

For example, if you frequent a particular gym and then have a habit of stopping at the nearest coffee shop, the app estimates the likelihood of that route and sends ads for nearby locations to your feed. Of course, this is a simple example, and Facebook will be able to extrapolate a lot more information from user location data.

Another patent application, titled "Location Prediction Using Wireless Signals in Social Media," would allow Facebook to predict your future location based on trends in that area. In other words, if people with the same profile as you follow a certain pattern of moving around a city, Facebook will expect you to visit those places as well. For example, people attending the same football match will be grouped together and receive the same promotional email from nearby beer establishments.

Technology companies regularly claim that they respect the privacy of their users and collect anonymous data to improve their services and the provision of advertising, over the past decade have increasingly gained access to the lives of ordinary people.