^ my FB also shows ads for items I’ve browsed … in thinking it’s google (I browse in Chrome signed into my google account, and my FB login is my gmail address). I never take those FB quizzes.
They also knew I came back from a trip two weeks ago. I didn’t book anything through FB. My FB email is yahoo that I never use for booking or anything else and I search in incognito window exclusively. What stops them from knowing which bank I do business with?
I knew there were reasons why I am not on FB and this is just one more.
On a slightly different note, I saw a story this morning on apps on phones (I have an Android). I followed the instructions and had 72 apps on my phone! Only TWO of them are things I put on, one that my job requires and Shazam because I like to identify music on the radio when H is driving. H had about the same number on his phone. The only difference is that I always click no to location finder (even on my home computer) and he doesn’t. We went through our phones and deleted a ton but some, like Google apps, won’t allow themselves to be deleted. I took off things like Yelp, IMDB (which I love but not on my phone), Audible, Amazon, Kindle and a bunch of other apparently factory installed stuff. I still have 50 plus but I have to figure out what they are and if I need them. H was shocked to discover that his flashlight app allowed pictures and location! He declined those permissions to keep the app. My calendar had contacts given permission, so I turned that off. My calendar is personal to me - I track when to pay bills for instance and don’t share it with others so why I need to allow contacts access to it.
I highly suggest that you check your phone’s apps. It was incredibly enlightening and nausea inducing to me.
@Iglooo that is very creepy!!!
I’ve cut way down on FB usage in the last year. The political posts get tiresome, even from people with whom I agree. There are only so many Tasty videos I can watch of gooey desserts or cheesy bacon meat rolls being made. The pics of kids with the hundreds of identical comments “STUNNING, just like her Mom!!” “Beautiful family!!”
I’m close to deleting my account, but there are some long-lost friends whose connection I cherish. Having been on FB for more than a decade, my digital footprint is likely well established by now. Maybe I will delete my current account and start fresh – or is that closing the door after the horse has escaped the barn?
Even worse, the data of every one of their friends was stolen too!
I know it’s a problem all over our tech world, with Alexa and Google Home spying on us, etc., but this was done by a company whose people were recently filmed bragging about how they change elections by staging fake briberies of opposition candidates, or “honeytraps”, etc. It’s more than just trying to sell on a different brand of soap.
@techmom99, can you share the phone app instructions or link to the story?
“Facebook doesn’t just record every click and “like” on the site. It also collects browsing histories. It also purchases “external” data like financial information about users (though European nations have some regulations that block some of this). Facebook recently announced its intent to merge “offline” data — things you do in the physical world, such as making purchases in a brick-and-mortar store — with its vast online databases.
Facebook even creates “shadow profiles” of nonusers. That is, even if you are not on Facebook, the company may well have compiled a profile of you, inferred from data provided by your friends or from other data. This is an involuntary dossier from which you cannot opt out in the United States.”
I wonder if some data collection company is collecting what we say on CC.
@TatinG, facebook is.
Nah, too complicated to dissect words. They can’t even properly flag.
I’ve always known or suspected that. That’s why only the most benign things, public things, go on Facebook.
It doesn’t seem to matter what you post. I don’t post where I go and yet FB knew I came back from a trip two weeks ago. My location is turned off except for map.
@mominva -
I saw it on the Today Show this morning on Rossen Reports. He said it would be available on the show’s website.
@igloo, so if you didn’t post it anywhere, what is your theory about how FB “knew” you came back from a trip?
Also, how was it communicated that FB knew that you’d been traveling? I recently got back from a trip, but see no evidence on my FB page that FB “knew” anything. I almost never post on my page, but occasionally will wish a friend or family member happy birthday or comment pretty benignly on a photo.
Just trying to figure out how this works and how one person can remain practically invisible online while the next person is not.
It always amazes me that people don’t realize that the information they put on Facebook is for sale. How do they think Facebook makes its billions? Back when Mark Zuckerberg was nineteen he marveled how easy it was to get people to trust him and put all their personal information on his site. He called these people “dumb f***s” when messaging with a friend.
@Nrdsb4 It was on the ad profile in FB. I followed the link in the article I posted earlier by Business Insider. Post #17 It shows what they catalogued about you. They probably know more. That’s where they listed I came back from a trip. They knew what computer I use. They also know I visit ebay. I knew about airbnb but that is probably because airbnb screens people with FB.
I have no idea how they knew all this. My best guess at the moment is the FB app on my phone. Since that app is always logged in. I hide my location on the computer but on the phone it’s on so I can use the map. I deleted FB and Instagram apps from my phone in the meantime. I don’t know if it helps.
@oldfort Can you give a source for your claim that allowing a quiz to post your results on FB gives them access to your friend data, or more data on you than you agreed when taking the quiz?
Some quizzes/apps want to mine your data, and ask when you click on them. Like a quiz to find your FB friend who is your BFF. I never give that permission, but I know I have friends who do (because I say to myself, that thing my friend posted looks fun, I will try that!). Then back off when I see they want my data.
But if I take a quiz w/ innocuous (in my opinion) questions (which house would you rather live in? Guacamole or hummus?) that does not require data access, then post the result in FB (Ravenclaw! Gandalf! Alexander Hamilton!), I don’t believe that app is getting more from me than the questions I chose to answer.
Maybe they can collect info if my friends react to that post — hey, someone gave a crying face because I test as Gandalf. But I see this as quite different from getting full access to my likes, dislikes, posts of articles, etc.
My effort to post the link to see what FB catalogued about you is thwarted by CC. When I put the link CC says my post is being flagged and my comment box becomes blank. The link is on the second page or the first slide of the Business Insider article I linked on post #17. Hopefully, that doesn’t get flagged and deleted. Basically, you log on to FB and go to settings and click on ads.
@intparent You don’t need to give anyone permission. It’s in the fine prints that you are agreeing to your friends’ info be collected. As if you have the right to give away your friends info. That’s why it’s an outrage on top of everything else. They are not collecting data from what you say/post. They have nefarious means of collecting data that you didn’t know they could. They knew I had an iPhone X. I have no desire to broadcast I use one of the most expensive phones in the market. It is in one of the articles posted on the first page.
Yes, I know that is what is happening when someone agrees to let an app have their data — the app is getting their friend’s data, too. But I am talking about the quizzes that don’t ask for data access. I don’t think they carry the same risk to me or my FB friends. I’m willing to be proven wrong.