4 ms·

I joined a group for T2 diabetes at some point because I have a stubborn friend that doesn’t want to receive proper treatment and I basically wanted to ask abou

I joined a group for T2 diabetes at some point because I have a stubborn friend that doesn’t want to receive proper treatment and I basically wanted to ask about available options. Next thing I know is that Facebook started giving me ads for diabetics. Having such an influential company know about your illnesses and sell that to advertisers or healthcare insurance agencies or credit agencies or god knows what else is frankly terrifying.

tomrod 8y ago
Similar to my experience. I left a high demand religion, and suddenly I'm bombarded with ads to join said religion everywhere because of Facebook's reach. It's disturbing!
xefer 8y ago
So I'm curious: have you tried removing details from your Facebook ad preferences? On the desktop website go to: Settings | Ads | Your Interests. There is a huge ontology of various subjects that have been algorithmically assigned to you. If you remove these, I believe ads targeted to those interests should go away. I periodically just sweep them all clean so I have no interests. I get very few ads and those that I go get are completely generic. I never see anything that would seem creepily aware of who I am.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- seandougall 8y ago
  It’s pretty good that they allow you to do that now, but it can’t retroactively remove those interests from the personal data they’ve already sold about you. So it fixes the smaller issue of what ads Facebook serves, but doesn’t address the larger issue of privacy.
  - rock_hard 8y ago
    FB doesn’t sell your data though, never has! What they sell is the ability to target you based on it. But the data never leaves FBs servers! So if you remove the tags from your settings, advertisers won’t be able to target you with them anymore
    - fcarraldo 8y ago
      This isn’t the whole truth. Facebook doesn’t sell data, but Facebook’s Graph API combined with microtargeting ad groups allows third party applications that the user has authorized to gather and sell sensitive data to anyone they want. In many cases, the data does leave Facebook’s servers as soon as the action is taken. You could argue this is the user’s own fault, but prior to Cambridge Analytica, there was very little public understanding of what “connecting” an app to Facebook really meant among the general population. Also, just because Facebook doesn’t sell this data today does not mean they never will.
      - rock_hard 8y ago
        Sure, third parties can request access to the graph API by asking the user for permission. But Facebook issnt selling that access! Access to the APIs is free. Now users just giving any random app access is a whole different can of worms...you have the same issue on Android and iOS with permission dialogs...people worry about Amazon Alexa recording everything they say, but will give any app microphone/camera access to do just the same if the app creator is ill intended.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- rock_hard 8y ago
  You can actually find out why you are seeing a particular ad bt clicking on the three dots on the upper right, there is a menu item called “why am I seeing this” which will tell you how the advertisers is targeting you. It also gives you the ability to hide ads like that in the future
ankit219 8y ago
That is absolutely terrifying. As far as I know, FB does not allow you to target users by the group they join. (pages targeting is allowed). Which means it is likely that the Facebook algorithm is doing that without even prompted by the advertiser. Did you visit a lot of links related to T2 diabetes? Another possibility is that the Facebook pixel could have helped the website target you again.
- jeromegv 8y ago
  Facebook doesn’t allow you to target groups directly however it allows you to target interests. Interests are auto generated based on how you use Facebook (and that includes groups).
harryh 8y ago
Showing you ads for diabetics is not the same thing as selling your information to those advertisers. The advertisers don't get a list of the people that see their ads.
- johnchristopher 8y ago
  But the reverse is true. You can upload a list of contacts through your Facebook business manager.

tomrod 8y ago

Similar to my experience. I left a high demand religion, and suddenly I'm bombarded with ads to join said religion everywhere because of Facebook's reach. It's disturbing!

xefer 8y ago

So I'm curious: have you tried removing details from your Facebook ad preferences? On the desktop website go to: Settings | Ads | Your Interests. There is a huge ontology of various subjects that have been algorithmically assigned to you. If you remove these, I believe ads targeted to those interests should go away. I periodically just sweep them all clean so I have no interests. I get very few ads and those that I go get are completely generic. I never see anything that would seem creepily aware of who I am.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
seandougall 8y ago
It’s pretty good that they allow you to do that now, but it can’t retroactively remove those interests from the personal data they’ve already sold about you. So it fixes the smaller issue of what ads Facebook serves, but doesn’t address the larger issue of privacy.
- rock_hard 8y ago
  FB doesn’t sell your data though, never has! What they sell is the ability to target you based on it. But the data never leaves FBs servers! So if you remove the tags from your settings, advertisers won’t be able to target you with them anymore
  - fcarraldo 8y ago
    This isn’t the whole truth. Facebook doesn’t sell data, but Facebook’s Graph API combined with microtargeting ad groups allows third party applications that the user has authorized to gather and sell sensitive data to anyone they want. In many cases, the data does leave Facebook’s servers as soon as the action is taken. You could argue this is the user’s own fault, but prior to Cambridge Analytica, there was very little public understanding of what “connecting” an app to Facebook really meant among the general population. Also, just because Facebook doesn’t sell this data today does not mean they never will.
    - rock_hard 8y ago
      Sure, third parties can request access to the graph API by asking the user for permission. But Facebook issnt selling that access! Access to the APIs is free. Now users just giving any random app access is a whole different can of worms...you have the same issue on Android and iOS with permission dialogs...people worry about Amazon Alexa recording everything they say, but will give any app microphone/camera access to do just the same if the app creator is ill intended.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
rock_hard 8y ago
You can actually find out why you are seeing a particular ad bt clicking on the three dots on the upper right, there is a menu item called “why am I seeing this” which will tell you how the advertisers is targeting you. It also gives you the ability to hide ads like that in the future

ankit219 8y ago

That is absolutely terrifying. As far as I know, FB does not allow you to target users by the group they join. (pages targeting is allowed). Which means it is likely that the Facebook algorithm is doing that without even prompted by the advertiser. Did you visit a lot of links related to T2 diabetes? Another possibility is that the Facebook pixel could have helped the website target you again.

jeromegv 8y ago
Facebook doesn’t allow you to target groups directly however it allows you to target interests. Interests are auto generated based on how you use Facebook (and that includes groups).

harryh 8y ago

Showing you ads for diabetics is not the same thing as selling your information to those advertisers. The advertisers don't get a list of the people that see their ads.

johnchristopher 8y ago
But the reverse is true. You can upload a list of contacts through your Facebook business manager.