Out of Control Facebook

I was talking with a lady yesterday about helping find her kid a decent tablet for christmas she said no she would rather go get his nintendo ds fixed i had my new samsung tab e on table beside me in standby mode. today i had a bunch of ads for where to buy or fix a nintendo ds on my newspage on facebook. i have never searched for a ds and last nintendo i bought was a gamecube and ds isn't a current gamesystem to my knowledge which leaves 1 conclusion nintendo was listening to conversation to tailor ads. i know i sound like a guy who wears tinfoil hat but its only thing that makes sense

a reply to: proteus33
Smart devices listen when we aren't paying attention.

I left my phone near my TV for a few nights some time ago, and put on telemundo before going to bed. Sure enough, spanish ads started showing up.

a reply to: proteus33

I quit Facebook a long time ago,it isn't a safe place to be in.

a reply to: proteus33

We are nothing but products. What we consume is the most important detail about us, in their eyes.

It may be deeper than just Fascistbook: The electronics listening to us, and we see the targeted ads as a result. But the info may go through more than a few companies, and databases before being sold to the final advertiser you see.

Cambridge Data boasts about having 5000-6000 data points on every citizen in North-America.
They probably know when we go to the turlet.
Heck: They probably know us even better than Santy-Claus!

its all hooked into giganto spooky AI.

they know you better than you know yourself

a reply to: proteus33

Spend a day talking about holidays in Mexico and see if your ads change. Seriously. Try it.

Otherwise it's more likely your mind was remembering yesterday's conversation and paying more attention to the word 'Nintendo' than you normally would.

Saying that, it won't surprise many people at all if we found out one day that, yes, ads were affected by the subjects of our conversations. There's a lot of anecdotal evidence and we all know someone in RL who claims it's happened to them.

Other people have noticed this phenomenon besides you, people are thinking that Facebook (or companies in general, like maybe Sony's PlayStation or Microsoft's Xbox) use their microphones to listen to conversations in order to get data for advertisers. I think Facebook admitted to analyzing the content of instant messages for things like this.

I don't think this is even a secret.

just sitting around talking to people with your phone or tablet on the table will lead to getting ads that related to your conversation lots of times like some cuberpunk ouija board.

fb also tracks your every move.

There is a way to see where it's pinged you at, i forgot how, but when I saw how accurately it tracked my location, even when I though i was disconnected form wi-fi, my jaw dropped.

Facebook sucks and is a waste of time.
Unless you are narcistist who cares about your selfies and photos of what you had for dinner.
I'm sticking with a basic phone and the grape-vine of gossip.

Yep happens to me.

I think 'fix' or 'repair' is a key word because similar situation happened recently.

a reply to: skunkape23

Some of us have family and friends spread across the country or globe.

It's a very useful tool for that reason.

originally posted by: abe froman
a reply to: skunkape23

Some of us have family and friends spread across the country or globe.

It's a very useful tool for that reason.

Phones and emails work well enough for me.
Hell, when was the last time you mailed a letter?
Facebook seems to be a cesspool from where I stand.

a reply to: Kandinsky

well it would be likely you were right except it was an add for an outdated game system and i told her fixing an old ds would likely cost as much as new one . since i had not looked that item up its odd that came up because i rarely get ads for game systems and when i do its either xbox 1 or playstation4. i haveseen this before i looked up on a girls fone a safety swing and kiddie slide while my fone was on table that exact slide and swing popped up as an add on my fb on my laptop.

a reply to: proteus33

While you’re logged onto Facebook, for instance, the network can see virtually every other website you visit. Even when you’re logged off, Facebook knows much of your browsing: It’s alerted every time you load a page with a “Like” or “share” button, or an advertisement sourced from its Atlas network. Facebook also provides publishers with a piece of code, called Facebook Pixel, that they (and by extension, Facebook) can use to log their Facebook-using visitors.

There are 98 personal data points that Facebook uses to target ads to you

a reply to: proteus33

This TED talk from last week creeped me out a bit. It relates to how FB and Google/YT influences us without any editorial or human intent.



Seriously though, experiment by speaking on certain subjects and comparing the ads you get delivered. Believe it or not, I'm not totally dismissive and have a genuine curiosity about all of it. I don't do FB and have my browsers packed with various ad-blockers so adverts aren't a big part of my internet experience.

PrivacyBadger is an app not many have heard of. It's good.

I am not even surprised anymore. Have this happen all the time. But in my experience, it isn't Facebook in particular, it seems to be Google that is reaping in the info. The other day I was talking with my daughter about something she wanted for Christmas, and I suddenly looked around to see if my phone was in listening distance. "Don't worry, I'll find it tomorrow when all the ads for it start popping up on my phone." I said.
Sure enough, no search was needed, they flooded in next morning.

a reply to: proteus33

ADBLOCK. There are so many adblocks available, for phone, laptop, tablet etc. etc. My web experience is so much nicer now... and turn off the listening settings on all your devices as well (not that I'd 100% trust it to be off).

a reply to: proteus33

In the last couple of weeks you tube has recommended three videos to me about subjects that I was just thinking about.
I knew about phones listening or using search terms but I swear I never even mentioned these things.

EG. Got out of the shower the other day and after a while I thought to myself "don't forget to dry my ears with a cotton tip".
Never said a word because I was alone at the time.
Scrolling through the recs there came a picture of four cotton tips with various amounts of ear glue on them saying...don't ignore these signs regarding your health!

That's spooky!
Its only happened by accident so far and I've tried thinking about random stuff to see if I can catch them out but it hasn't worked...yet.

Technocracy will end up ruling us one day. Either that or I'm getting more paranoid than usual.
Seems more than coincidence to me.

Having said that, their targeting of ads is useless.
Not once have I seen an ad for anything remotely of interest after two years using this phone for everything.

PS Yeah, I know your not supposed to put stuff in your ears but mine fill with water that stays there all day and its annoying.

the app google chrome does this, its in their terms and conditions, it was big news few years ago when it was discovered chrome has a function to record all audio through any available microphone, google explained it was only to listen for relevant advertisement recommendations, and then everyone just stopped talking about it,

its amazing how many people never read their terms and conditions, then they turn up in a thread like this all surprised they were being recorded, even though they agreed to be...

a reply to: proteus33

I was in a bar in London on Tuesday night, called The Whistling Shop. Its a fancy place, cocktails being the mainstay of its business. Its a basement speakeasy of the old school variety. Dimly lit, loads of atmosphere, some kind of funked up swing playing out of the sound system. It was my sisters birthday, else I would not have been out and about in London of all places, certainly not within my usual night out budget.

Because one can no longer smoke in bars in this country, in order to have a cigarette, it was necessary for me to ascend the stairs and leave the establishment, to stand outside its door, smoking. I left my phone behind with my sister, her husband and some friends of ours, attached to the mobile battery pack I carry on big trips to maintain contact with loved ones and ensure that I can always contact the emergency services, should it become necessary.

Rather than stand about, I took a stroll around. I walked past several establishments that I had NOT passed with my phone in hand, on the way to the bar we were patronising. And yet, when I got back downstairs, into the bar we were in, my phone had google information on several of the establishments and business premises I had walked past on my little stroll.

I was not surprised earlier on, when my phone had started telling me about businesses I had passed by on the WAY to the bar we were headed for, like Itsu (which is a noodle place franchise with several outlets along the route), or convenience stores nearby. But I WAS surprised that businesses I had only passed when my phone was not on my person, started popping up, courtesy of google.