petitefrancaise

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/t...s.html?mcubz=0

I find the FB spin of the story to be highly misleading.

The headlines really ought to be "FB receives money to distort US election"

I know that in recent months, FB have ramped up the number of employees to check over ad content. They are still heavily recruiting in that area. It seems that over-reliance on tech to decide on ad content is not such a good idea after all and that it needs a human eye to make decisions.

Since FB receives almost all of it's revenue from advertising, I fail to understand how they still maintain their "we're a technology platform" stance.

And this wide-eyed naiivete after the fact is beyond belief. Where is the oversight for this massive media outlet/tech company? Will institutional investors pull their money from a company clearly unable to police their own ad? Can't see the WSJ/FT or others getting off so lightly on this can you?

But never mind, we all know that Mr Z has another baby now. How sweet.

Leslie

Completely agree. Facebook has yet to be held accountable. I hope this hurts them in a way that makes them change the culture. Meaning, financially. I also hope that people will start to realize that Facebook is not their friend and they're being exploited. Hard to know at this point as some people are so addicted to Facebook they really aren't interested.

MidAtlantic

Maste

I went to my first ball game last night (Cardinals vs Pirates) and this morning I checked my facebook for the first time in a month or so. I have ads all over for Cardinal tickets etc now and I posted nothing about being at the game! FACEBOOK KNOWS

petitefrancaise

Op-ed in NY Times
Glad to see a newspaper picking it up.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/opinion/facebook-wins-democracy-loses.html

Pulaski

It's linked to your GPS location. I have recently started regularly get invitations from Google to review a business or restaurant that I have visited, and I have never posted anything about visiting the local grocery, DIY store, or whatever restaurant I have been to.

It is purely GPS data, and I would assume that Farcebook's app has similar link to your phone's GPS locator. You should be able to block/disable each app's link to your GPS locator. For something like Facebook I think it would make sense to block the link to your phone's GPS, but doing so for Google Maps would negate much of the functionality of Google Maps.

petitefrancaise

Honest to god!! Just take fb off your phone. Do you seriously need to know that little johnny has started school whilst you're out and about? Do you really need to tell the world that you are at a game?
I've still got messenger on my phone but fb went a long time ago.

Pulaski

I don't "have Facebook on my phone"! ...... Not sure if you meant to quote me, or Maste?

But yes, removing the Farcebook app should solve Maste's concerns.

petitefrancaise

Actually both... A response to your " work around" and to maste's post.

Steerpike

Would you mind telling us how you bought your tickets? That could give us a clue as to how they know.

Are you saying google is asking you to review businesses, NOT the result of a 'directions' request? That is - you are simply 'at that location' and haven't used Google Maps to get there? I haven't noticed that myself. So you are saying they are inferring perhaps 'attendance at a game' by your location and duration at that location?

I am sure some FB addicts just can't live without it on their phone. I added it once for some reason but got sick of how intrusive it was, and also it ran my battery down, so it's long gone from my phone. But I know many people use their phone as their main 'internet' device these days ... you can tell that many people use their phones to post on BE even (judging, at least, by the terrible typos that are becoming more prevalent by the day). I think that if you are into posting photos on FB, it's actually easiest to do so directly from the phone, sadly.

petitefrancaise

Anyone with slightly older teens/early twenties?

have you noticed that they don't use FB anymore? Snapchat and group messenger and in my family's case, whatsapp for communicating.

Pulaski

Yes, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Just yesterday, a few minutes after arriving at a restaurant Google Maps contacted me asking me to review the restaurant. I had not used Google Maps to get directions, nor even consulted Google Maps, or any other mapping app, software, or web site, to review routes and road conditions. I can't see any other way that the message was generated other than by a connection to the GPS locator in my phone.

Ditto visits to the grocery, and it doesn't happen after every visit, just a few.

ETA thinking about it, it is an least theoretically possible that Google Maps is reviewing IM's with Mrs P as I did discuss restaurants with her, and I may have discussed stopping at the grocery with her by IM before beimg solicited for a review. .... BUT in texts I wouldn't use the full name of the grocery, I reduce the grocery name to its initials, so I think the link to texts is a stretch.

tom169

At least my pixel continuously monitors where I am and asks for reviews, even in instances where Google maps wasn't used or I only spoke verbally about plans - usually lunch with coworkers.

Maste

Now that would make sense, if it's due to my GPS. I did spend the whole game there and took one or two pics, so maybe even the geotagging software that's usually automatic on photos picked up on the fact I was at the game!

I use it as a means to check up on family and friends back home now and again. Only reason I have the app! I don't post anything on there, so I don't know where the telling the world I was at a game came from?

I bought my tickets face to face from my school, as they were discounted student ones. The only thing I can think of that gave it away, was my photos have probably been geotagged? Anyway, it was intriguing and surprising to see those ads just like that the next day after the game, despite no posts, check ins, etc!

Steerpike

Being pedantic here, are you talking about some IM tool or text messaging? I realize the line is blurring now between them but to me, 'texts' implies SMS while 'IM' implies an IM app such as Trillian, Viber, Skype messaging, etc.

I would expect SMS to be pretty isolated, but IM to be heavily mined and abused for data. But I know that Apple 'enhance' SMS when source and destination are both Apple users, and Verizon are now 'enhancing' SMS in various ways between Verizon users.

Come to think of it, on my Android phone I am slowly but surely getting sucked into more and more Google services / features. I have 'signed in' to some google services on the phone, so that bookmarks and links from my desktop can be shared with the phone, etc. I can imagine that, as long as I'm 'signed in' on the phone, all manner of activities are being monitored. I'm quite curious to figure this one out!