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It was weird because we were having a discussion about problems in the office, construction related noise, and if we could find a different place to work tempor

It was weird because we were having a discussion about problems in the office, construction related noise, and if we could find a different place to work temporarily. In that group discussion, specific companies that provide co-working services were proposed. I never searched for anything related to this around this time (but it's possible someone in that group did!), I remember that very clearly and why the experience was so creepy. And then that same day I start seeing advertisements for many of the co-working spaces in the area that came up in that discussion. Sure, it could be a coincidence, but it's not the first time I've had that happen with a similar context. I think the example another person gave is almost just as creepy -- your friends influencing your own advertisements. That means that what your friends are searching for, private (embarrassing) things, could potentially leak over to you. I'm pretty aware of the fact that if I go looking for socks, I'm going to start getting sock advertisements on almost every page I go with advertisements, on both Google and Facebook. I don't find that creepy, just dumb and ineffective because it usually starts well past the time I already bought the socks.

wgerard 9y ago
Off the top of my head, it could easily be the case that Facebook is: 1) Aware of construction happening close to your place of employment (in any number of ways that doesn't require any super advanced knowledge) 2) Knows that people usually start to get fed up with construction noises after X days 3) Started showing you popular co-working spaces as a result Or, as you noted, your co-workers started searching for co-working spaces and Facebook picks up on that and assumes something is happening in your office such that other people might also be interested in co-working spaces. Creepy, sure. But doesn't require clandestine recording and parsing conversations. Or, even simpler than that: I see WeWork advertisements all the time despite never discussing them. It's not really that insane to think that places like WeWork might just be targeting your demographic and that's why you saw the advertisement. Anyway point being, none of these explanations require Facebook to record you.

wgerard 9y ago

Off the top of my head, it could easily be the case that Facebook is: 1) Aware of construction happening close to your place of employment (in any number of ways that doesn't require any super advanced knowledge) 2) Knows that people usually start to get fed up with construction noises after X days 3) Started showing you popular co-working spaces as a result Or, as you noted, your co-workers started searching for co-working spaces and Facebook picks up on that and assumes something is happening in your office such that other people might also be interested in co-working spaces. Creepy, sure. But doesn't require clandestine recording and parsing conversations. Or, even simpler than that: I see WeWork advertisements all the time despite never discussing them. It's not really that insane to think that places like WeWork might just be targeting your demographic and that's why you saw the advertisement. Anyway point being, none of these explanations require Facebook to record you.