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Slightly OT, but I deleted my Facebook last year. Ever since, the Instagram ads I see are woefully targeted. I'm a 30 year old man living in New Delhi, India, y

Slightly OT, but I deleted my Facebook last year. Ever since, the Instagram ads I see are woefully targeted. I'm a 30 year old man living in New Delhi, India, yet in the past few weeks, I've seen ads for: - A real estate company in Denver, Colarado - Sanitary pads for women - A Dubai property brokerage - BMW Las Vegas I really don't know what's going on with these ads because geographic and gender exclusion would be the first step in any targeting

omeid2 7y ago
You don't know who you are, it is about time you go buy your BMW in LA and sort out your prop investments in Dubai. But on a serious note, the notion that any insurance company or even governments give any weight to the "data" from social media and the like makes me uneasy, specially when you realize how off they can be!
antpls 7y ago
They could also target your friends. Maybe soon, one of your friends or siblings will announce you they are considering buying a BMW, and your reaction to this announcement might be better than without seeing the ad. Your reaction could confirm/trigger the final decision to buy a BMW for your friend.
- puranjay 7y ago
  In that case, Instagram knows my friends even less than it knows me. None of my extended group of friends are in any position to buy a used BMW, let alone a new one. (BMWs, by the way, are very expensive in India. An entry level 3-series costs roughly $70,000)
jasoncartwright 7y ago
Same here. Instagram is absolutely convinced I'm in Norway and no matter where I actually am (UK, Asia, Africa, USA) it only ever shows me ads in Norwegian... which I don't speak.
- puranjay 7y ago
  The ads in my wife's feed, who still has her Facebook account, on the other hand, are very well targeted. This makes me think that maybe Instagram depends heavily on your Facebook data for targeting, and that deleting your Facebook (not disabling; deleting) actually does delete your data from Facebook
  - propogandist 7y ago
    On facebook you explicitly provide them information on things like gender, language and basic demographics that advertisers use for targeting. On IG they may need to infer this information from your online activities if your FB is closed. That said, I don't see this being a data gap for too long.
    - puranjay 7y ago
      I just assumed that Facebook would still use my Facebook data it had already stored before I deleted my account.

omeid2 7y ago

You don't know who you are, it is about time you go buy your BMW in LA and sort out your prop investments in Dubai. But on a serious note, the notion that any insurance company or even governments give any weight to the "data" from social media and the like makes me uneasy, specially when you realize how off they can be!

antpls 7y ago

They could also target your friends. Maybe soon, one of your friends or siblings will announce you they are considering buying a BMW, and your reaction to this announcement might be better than without seeing the ad. Your reaction could confirm/trigger the final decision to buy a BMW for your friend.

puranjay 7y ago
In that case, Instagram knows my friends even less than it knows me. None of my extended group of friends are in any position to buy a used BMW, let alone a new one. (BMWs, by the way, are very expensive in India. An entry level 3-series costs roughly $70,000)

jasoncartwright 7y ago

Same here. Instagram is absolutely convinced I'm in Norway and no matter where I actually am (UK, Asia, Africa, USA) it only ever shows me ads in Norwegian... which I don't speak.

puranjay 7y ago
The ads in my wife's feed, who still has her Facebook account, on the other hand, are very well targeted. This makes me think that maybe Instagram depends heavily on your Facebook data for targeting, and that deleting your Facebook (not disabling; deleting) actually does delete your data from Facebook
- propogandist 7y ago
  On facebook you explicitly provide them information on things like gender, language and basic demographics that advertisers use for targeting. On IG they may need to infer this information from your online activities if your FB is closed. That said, I don't see this being a data gap for too long.
  - puranjay 7y ago
    I just assumed that Facebook would still use my Facebook data it had already stored before I deleted my account.