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Are you sure that your friends haven't searched for whatever FB suggested? Perhaps not even the exact thing but something similar or associated (e.g. searched f

Are you sure that your friends haven't searched for whatever FB suggested? Perhaps not even the exact thing but something similar or associated (e.g. searched for dog treats, sees ads for dog beds)? Have you visited a place that sells that thing with location services enabled? Do your friends express a lot of interest in the things advertised (posts, pictures, comments on any FB platform)? Do you spend a decent amount of time with these friends? What about other people that use the same home/work networks that you do? Being able to accurately predict what you might be interested in, or at least interested enough to click on is how FB makes their money. That is where a bulk of their R&D spend goes. Couple that with the fact that humans are creatures of habit and relatively predictable, and you can end up with the notion that FB or Google must be listening in on everything you are saying.

lostgame 8y ago
> Are you sure that your friends haven't searched for whatever FB suggested? Absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, in several instances. Too many, at this point. >> Perhaps not even the exact thing but something similar or associated (e.g. searched for dog treats, sees ads for dog beds)? Definitely not. These things are often obscure, and many times, said in jest, and never repeated via texts, and certainly never looked up in a serious context. >> Have you visited a place that sells that thing with location services enabled? I keep all of my location services disabled by default. I do enough development to know that's a poor idea. >> Do your friends express a lot of interest in the things advertised (posts, pictures, comments on any FB platform)? No, again, I think it's that these things are often said or suggested in a joking manner that really throws my friends and I off a lot of the time. >> Do you spend a decent amount of time with these friends? What about other people that use the same home/work networks that you do? For sure. I spend a lot of time with a lot of my friends, and again, these things are observed by co-workers as well, our security is extremely tight at my office, so the idea that could be exploited in any way by something like Facebook is disturbing at best. Frankly, the fact that you have to ask me these things alone is evidence enough as-is that there is an insane amount of intrusiveness going on.

lostgame 8y ago

> Are you sure that your friends haven't searched for whatever FB suggested? Absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, in several instances. Too many, at this point. >> Perhaps not even the exact thing but something similar or associated (e.g. searched for dog treats, sees ads for dog beds)? Definitely not. These things are often obscure, and many times, said in jest, and never repeated via texts, and certainly never looked up in a serious context. >> Have you visited a place that sells that thing with location services enabled? I keep all of my location services disabled by default. I do enough development to know that's a poor idea. >> Do your friends express a lot of interest in the things advertised (posts, pictures, comments on any FB platform)? No, again, I think it's that these things are often said or suggested in a joking manner that really throws my friends and I off a lot of the time. >> Do you spend a decent amount of time with these friends? What about other people that use the same home/work networks that you do? For sure. I spend a lot of time with a lot of my friends, and again, these things are observed by co-workers as well, our security is extremely tight at my office, so the idea that could be exploited in any way by something like Facebook is disturbing at best. Frankly, the fact that you have to ask me these things alone is evidence enough as-is that there is an insane amount of intrusiveness going on.