4 ms·

> Facebook explicitly commercially exists to harvest user data for Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Fidelity etc etc Sources on this?

by eecks 9y ago

olivermarks 9y ago
https://www.wsj.com/articles/p-g-to-scale-back-targeted-facebook-ads-1470760949 https://www.wsj.com/articles/p-g-to-scale-back-targeted-face... Not hard to find information, although it is typically couched as brand reach and advertising spots. The big data sales side of FB and other sites is more sensitive and less overt https://www.facebook.com/help/494750870625830?helpref=uf_permalink https://www.facebook.com/help/494750870625830?helpref=uf_per...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- IAmEveryone 9y ago
  Your links do not support the idea of “harvest[ing] user data”. They describe the usual Facebook ad platform, where you can set criteria to target users. But nowhere does it mention data on individual users flowing from Facebook to advertisers.
  - olivermarks 9y ago
    from my original Bloomberg link in post about FB 'Politicians running for office can be lucrative ad buyers. For those who spend enough, Facebook offers customized services to help them build effective campaigns, the same way it would Unilever NV or Coca-Cola Co. ahead of a product launch. While Facebook declined to give the size of its politics unit, one executive said it can expand to include hundreds during the peak of an election, drawing in people from the company’s legal, information security and policy teams.' It is harder to find information about FB's data sales policies (which are very opaque unless you speak to people high up in marketing large companies and their activities). FB's ad platform information is pretty transparent, but the quarterly numbers don't really add up for me based on spend by large firms like Procter & Gamble etc in those areas...
    - IAmEveryone 9y ago
      > It is harder to find information about FB's data sales policies So you’re explicitly agreeing that you have no proof that Facebook is offering data for sale. The quote you cite has nothing to do with the initial assertion: providing consultants that teach people how to use the ad manager is something completely different than selling PII.
      - olivermarks 9y ago
        Obviously you won't be finding a FB webpage providing details of where to buy user data by the thousands as I tried to explain above. FB"s role working with and for the Trump campaign provides some insights Trump, Cambridge Analytica and how big data is reshaping politics - Gillian Tett in the FT https://www.ft.com/content/e66232e4-a30e-11e7-9e4f-7f5e6a7c98a2 https://www.ft.com/content/e66232e4-a30e-11e7-9e4f-7f5e6a7c9...
        IAmEveryone 9y ago
        And obviously I won’t be admitting to murder, therefore I must be a murderer? The linked article, once again, provides no proof (or even mention) of any data being sold by Facebook. I have no idea why you keep piling on irrelevant articles.
        nl 9y ago
        Cambridge Analytics just got banned for scraping data (stealing..) from Facebook. That’s the exact opposite of Facebook selling them the data.
    - tobilg 9y ago
      They simply make use of FB‘s Marketing APIs, which are well documented: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/audiences-api https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/audiences... https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/reference/custom-audience https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/reference... https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/buying-api/targeting https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/buying-ap... https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/targeting-search https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/targeting...
- joering2 9y ago
  The Facebook page you refer to is interesting. At the bottom it says to reach out to https://aboutthedata.com/ https://aboutthedata.com/ to see what data they have on you. So I did. Then I scroll down to see "See and Edit Marketing Data about You. CLICK HERE" only to be redirected to a registration page that requires my US-based address and last 4 of SSN. Talking about misled communication, or rather blunt deception, otherwise how the heck "click here to see data about you" lands me on registration page? I don't want to register, I want to see the data!
- nl 9y ago
  This simply isn’t true. I’ve spent lots of time and money getting data out of FB. You can pay to get anonymized topic data via DataSift and others, you can pay to run ads against users you have email addresses for (but you don’t get their data) or you can scrape (which is against the terms of service and they have an aggressive anti bot system to stop it - unlike Twitter). Their political support systems are analytics support to ad buying.

> Facebook explicitly commercially exists to harvest user data for Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Fidelity etc etc Sources on this?

by eecks 9y ago

> Facebook explicitly commercially exists to harvest user data for Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Fidelity etc etc Sources on this?

olivermarks 9y ago

https://www.wsj.com/articles/p-g-to-scale-back-targeted-facebook-ads-1470760949 https://www.wsj.com/articles/p-g-to-scale-back-targeted-face... Not hard to find information, although it is typically couched as brand reach and advertising spots. The big data sales side of FB and other sites is more sensitive and less overt https://www.facebook.com/help/494750870625830?helpref=uf_permalink https://www.facebook.com/help/494750870625830?helpref=uf_per...

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
IAmEveryone 9y ago
Your links do not support the idea of “harvest[ing] user data”. They describe the usual Facebook ad platform, where you can set criteria to target users. But nowhere does it mention data on individual users flowing from Facebook to advertisers.
- olivermarks 9y ago
  from my original Bloomberg link in post about FB 'Politicians running for office can be lucrative ad buyers. For those who spend enough, Facebook offers customized services to help them build effective campaigns, the same way it would Unilever NV or Coca-Cola Co. ahead of a product launch. While Facebook declined to give the size of its politics unit, one executive said it can expand to include hundreds during the peak of an election, drawing in people from the company’s legal, information security and policy teams.' It is harder to find information about FB's data sales policies (which are very opaque unless you speak to people high up in marketing large companies and their activities). FB's ad platform information is pretty transparent, but the quarterly numbers don't really add up for me based on spend by large firms like Procter & Gamble etc in those areas...
  - IAmEveryone 9y ago
    > It is harder to find information about FB's data sales policies So you’re explicitly agreeing that you have no proof that Facebook is offering data for sale. The quote you cite has nothing to do with the initial assertion: providing consultants that teach people how to use the ad manager is something completely different than selling PII.
    - olivermarks 9y ago
      Obviously you won't be finding a FB webpage providing details of where to buy user data by the thousands as I tried to explain above. FB"s role working with and for the Trump campaign provides some insights Trump, Cambridge Analytica and how big data is reshaping politics - Gillian Tett in the FT https://www.ft.com/content/e66232e4-a30e-11e7-9e4f-7f5e6a7c98a2 https://www.ft.com/content/e66232e4-a30e-11e7-9e4f-7f5e6a7c9...
      - IAmEveryone 9y ago
        And obviously I won’t be admitting to murder, therefore I must be a murderer? The linked article, once again, provides no proof (or even mention) of any data being sold by Facebook. I have no idea why you keep piling on irrelevant articles.
      - nl 9y ago
        Cambridge Analytics just got banned for scraping data (stealing..) from Facebook. That’s the exact opposite of Facebook selling them the data.
  - tobilg 9y ago
    They simply make use of FB‘s Marketing APIs, which are well documented: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/audiences-api https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/audiences... https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/reference/custom-audience https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/reference... https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/buying-api/targeting https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/buying-ap... https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/targeting-search https://developers.facebook.com/docs/marketing-api/targeting...
joering2 9y ago
The Facebook page you refer to is interesting. At the bottom it says to reach out to https://aboutthedata.com/ https://aboutthedata.com/ to see what data they have on you. So I did. Then I scroll down to see "See and Edit Marketing Data about You. CLICK HERE" only to be redirected to a registration page that requires my US-based address and last 4 of SSN. Talking about misled communication, or rather blunt deception, otherwise how the heck "click here to see data about you" lands me on registration page? I don't want to register, I want to see the data!
nl 9y ago
This simply isn’t true. I’ve spent lots of time and money getting data out of FB. You can pay to get anonymized topic data via DataSift and others, you can pay to run ads against users you have email addresses for (but you don’t get their data) or you can scrape (which is against the terms of service and they have an aggressive anti bot system to stop it - unlike Twitter). Their political support systems are analytics support to ad buying.