Facebook announced this week that it will begin tracking the performance of advertising and its impact on users across all devices. That means advertisers will be able to see where an advertisement was first viewed, and which device (like mobile phones, tablets or desktop computers) users implemented to make the purchase.

“With the new cross-device report, advertisers are now able to view the devices on which people see ads and the devices on which conversions subsequently occur,” Facebook wrote in its blog post announcing the tracking. “For instance, a marketer can view the number of customers that clicked an ad on an iPhone but then later converted on desktop, or the number of people that saw an ad on desktop but then converted on an Android tablet.”

In other words, Facebook wants to show that mobile ads can have a lasting impact on consumers and lead to purchases, even if those purchases are made away from a smartphone. The tracking works when advertisers place tracking code on their websites and mobile apps, and then specify what kinds of conversions they want to observe.

Though the identity of individual users isn’t revealed by this technology, you can bet this kind of close watch for the sake of advertising data will put off more than a few Facebook users.

Image Credit: Facebook