Can data be biased? We must ask the origin of data first?

At one time, I felt safe to say that data was very absolute. That it tells unbiased story and that people should accept its value as factual rather than theoretical. My choice at that time to not really ask questions  because it was just too much effort  to try to get an answer  that was much more important than the truth. It was a ban-aid but it helped me to get t where I am now. Data can be very useful. I use it everyday to assessed if my posts are actually contributing to a following for my company's social media platforms. For FB and Instagram which is now owned by FB, to use data,  its seems logical. To collect data without consumers being aware of it and to then to profit with physical value (tangible evidence) without the  consumers knowing then its unethical to me . To collect data to manipulate consumers is a very fine line. I am not going to lie, I am  a marketing specialist, I am faced with this decision on a daily basis. I want to collect data  and use it in identifying  patterns to enhance my company's following. To perform  this task, I will have to collect data, does this mean  I will have to reach out to all of my followers directly to gather the data collectively and build an analysis to direct or redirect my company's social media following?  This seems illogical. So I have to ask myself , how would other companies deal with these types of questions, especially those that have a following of thousands.
Collecting data to manipulate consumers is very grey right now for me.  I will need to target audiences so demographics re involved, so therefore one could say the use of social biased can be acceptable. This is where the line becomes grey. I would never call my target a monkey, or someone that lives in a jungle, however if my company;s target is a low income single parent home  and data shows that its an african american  single woman household, would it not be logical to feature that on an ad? This is where data can be perceived as biased..well the use of data, but my intentions is yo target an audience  no matter what race, it is  the attention retainer I am concern about ?
the decisions we faced with the collection of data is really about how we use it, do you agree?