Facebook already knows who your friends are and the kind of things that grab your attention but sSoon, it could also know the state of your health.
On the heels of fellow technology companies Apple and Google, Facebook is plotting its first steps into the fertile field of healthcare, said three people familiar with the matter.
The company is exploring creating online "support communities" that would connect Facebook users suffering from various ailments.
A small team is also considering new "preventative care" applications that would help people improve their lifestyles.
In recent months, the sources said, the social networking giant has been holding meetings with medical industry experts and entrepreneurs, and is setting up a research and development unit to test new health apps.
Facebook is still in the idea-gathering stage, they added.
Healthcare has historically been an area of interest for the company, but it has taken a backseat to more pressing products.
Recently however, Facebook executives have come to realise that healthcare might work as a tool to increase engagement with the site.
One catalyst behind the rethink was the unexpected success of Facebook's "organ-donor status initative," introduced in 2012.
The day that Facebook altered profile pages to allow members to specify their organ donor-status, 13,054 people registered to be organ donors online in the US, a 21 fold increase over the daily average of 616 registrations, according to a study published in the American Journal of Transplantation.
Separately, Facebook product teams noticed that people with chronic ailments such as diabetes would search the social networking site for advice, one former Facebook insider said.
In addition, the proliferation of patient networks demonstrate that people are increasingly comfortable sharing symptoms and treatment experiences online.
Any advertising built around the health initiatives would not be as targeted as it could be on television or other media.
Pharmaceutical companies, for instance, are prohibited from using Facebook to promote the sale of prescription drugs, in part because of concerns surrounding disclosures.
Privacy, an area where the company has faced considerable criticism over the years, will likely prove a challenge. But Facebook may already have a few ideas to alleviate privacy concerns around its health initiatives.
The company is considering rolling out its first health application quietly and under a different name, a source said.
Market research commissioned by Facebook found that many of its users were unaware that photo-service Instagram is Facebook-owned, the source said.
Facebook's recent softening of its policy requiring users to go by their real names may also bolster the company's health plans.
People with chronic conditions may prefer to use an alias when sharing their health experiences.
Facebook declined to comment on its health care plans.
