So the other day, I went out and bought a brand of potato chips that I don't often purchase. Paid with Visa. Next day I get a targeted ad in my FB feed for that brand. Kinda freaks me out a bit. Coincidence?

Couple of years ago I was chatting with a friend who'd just had a lot of cosmetic dental work done. He was saying that I should think about it and talked about how much more confident he felt (he had a bad set of knashers to start with) - Neither of us did any searches online to do with dental surgery, it was just a face to face chat.

Next day my FB feed was full of adverts for cosmetic dentistry. I'd never searched the subject online before at all. Not even once. I thought it was very strange that I was seeing all these ads just after I'd had that chat with my friend, and looked into it online.

Many people have had similar experiences and many people believe that the FB messenger app on your phone listens to your conversations to target ads to you. I realize how tin-foil-hat this sounds, but the evidence is overwhelming. People have done experiments where they've talked at length about a product or service they've never researched online, only to see FB ads appearing on their feed which directly relate to the topic of conversation.

I frequently deny the FB messenger app access to my microphone on my phone (you can do so in the settings) but every time the app updates, it seems to turn it back on again. Strange that. I'd happily uninstall (or at least disable it) if it wasn't so crucial to my work.

RickyBobby wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2019 9:59 pm So the other day, I went out and bought a brand of potato chips that I don't often purchase. Paid with Visa. Next day I get a targeted ad in my FB feed for that brand. Kinda freaks me out a bit. Coincidence?

no, of course not, that kind of info for corporations is like blood to a vampire.
Anti-dote: you should've suspected FB from the start and never put your real name or any other data if you could help it on the internet.
Different email addresses, different names including the "real" name they say they want when you sign up, different age, etc.

You can check the "Why am I seeing this ad" option to see why you're getting it. Then you just say - Hide Ad, Irrelevant, Block all Ads from Lays or whomever it was. Just keep fucking up their marketing. But yeah, expect your app to listen in on you if you told it it could use your microphone. If you keep it in your pocket all it will hear is fart noises. Alexa listens in on you, too.

cptrelentless wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2019 7:12 pm If you keep it in your pocket all it will hear is fart noises.

And if all it hears is fart noises, then you will get a lot of ads for help with flatulence.

Scary stuff.

cptrelentless wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2019 7:12 pm You can check the "Why am I seeing this ad" option to see why you're getting it. Then you just say - Hide Ad, Irrelevant, Block all Ads from Lays or whomever it was. Just keep fucking up their marketing. But yeah, expect your app to listen in on you if you told it it could use your microphone. If you keep it in your pocket all it will hear is fart noises. Alexa listens in on you, too.

I do that with ads all the time, irrelevant. All ads are irrelevant to me.

I do not understand why people feel the need to use that facebook shit in the first place.

JerryCan wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2019 7:44 pm I do not understand why people feel the need to use that facebook shit in the first place.

Social media is for the people who need to show the world what they are up to.

I dont use it , It would be boring, ill admit i am not an interesting person and am quite selfish.

My best interest is my best interest , I couldnt give 2 fucks what the next person thinks mostly under the assumption that the next person is a wanker.

Rant over.

JerryCan wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2019 7:44 pm I do not understand why people feel the need to use that facebook shit in the first place.

I reopened my account when I started traveling Asia and when I moved to Cambodia it served as a great way to keep in touch with friends and family. It also interests me to see photos of my loved ones.

For example my son is with my parents on holiday while my wife and I get used to our newborn. I’ve enjoyed seeing the photos of my son with his grandparents at Disney and other places. People have enjoyed my wife posting our newborn.

That is tremendously valuable to me and many others, I find it befuddling that you don’t understand why people would value it.

GMJS-CEO wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2019 9:11 pmI find it befuddling that you don’t understand why people would value it.

By using facebook you are turning yourself and your family into a product for facebook to sell to its advertisers. Every bit of information they can glean from you is the product that facebook is selling (or just being hacked for).
Your parents could have just emailed you and your wife the photos, enabling you to share their joy without making decisions on your children's behalf about what aspects of their lives are being traded on by data hungry corporations. Just my 2c.

Edit: and ya, those tin-foil theories at the start of this thread are nuts and absurd. Gotta love it when people talk about "experiments that have been done" without any citations....