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As someone who spent the past 4.5 years in ad tech, this isn't all that surprising. There are a number of ways they likely tagged them as being likely "connecte
by wjossey 10y ago
As someone who spent the past 4.5 years in ad tech, this isn't all that surprising. There are a number of ways they likely tagged them as being likely "connected" and thus the suggestion.
1. The individual visited the doctors website, which has a Facebook tracking pixel. This pixel is associated with the doctors page.
2. Contact lists. The user has given FB access to their contacts and the doctor is there.
3. The patient used the doctors free wifi. The user browsed a website which has tracking information that leaks to a third party some identifiable information along with the IP. The third party knows that IP belongs to the doctors office, so they know you are connected. This data is sold back to facebook via one of their DMP (data management platform) partners.
I could go on. Lots of ways leak information without it being purposeful. Ad blockers also don't necessarily solve this problem as tracking can be done server side as well.
- ThomPete 10y agoOh you can go further than that, you on facebook you likely are on their mobile version too which means hardware id is known and can be correlated. So you just need to visit your doctors office and your phones attempt to connect with wifi should be enough. Friend of mine do something similar for hotels.
- tzs 10y agoFacebook suggested a link between me and my insurance agent. 1. I have not visited the insurance agent's website. 2. He is not in my contact list. (And I've not given FB access to my contact list). 3. I've never been to his office. I have visited the website of the national insurance company that he represents, so if he was my local agent I could see them inferring a connection. However, he is not my local agent. He's from the city I lived in two moves ago--a city I lived in before FB existed. As far as I know, I have no friends that use him as an insurance agent. I did switch to that insurance company on the recommendation of friends, but that was three moves ago, when I lived in a completely different state. Those friends and I both moved to this state at about the same time, but to different cities, and we switched to different agents when we moved. It was rather creepy.
- noselasd 10y agoThe connection could come from the other side too - your insurance agent. You could be in the insurance agent' contact list, etc.
- soared 10y agoYou either emailed him and he uploaded a contact list, or he had a tracking pixel in an email.
- wjossey 10y agoOverall, I'd like to see more transparency from companies as to the "why" for these recommendations. I doubt we will see that happen without legislation, as I'm sure FB and Google would never want to present to end users that they know you are pregnant because of in store purchases you made. The creepiness factor takes a huge leap once people understand how something ends up in their feed.
- rahrahrah 10y ago4. Shared WhatsApp contacts.