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My wife and I were watching John Wick and got to talking about owning a handgun. The next morning my facebook feed was showing me marketplace listings for hols

My wife and I were watching John Wick and got to talking about owning a handgun. The next morning my facebook feed was showing me marketplace listings for holsters.

LeoPanthera 7y ago
These kind of corrolation incidents are why the myth exists. The truth is that advertising companies like Facebook don't need to listen to us. They already know more than enough personal information about us to target ads.
- esoterica 7y ago
  Also explains why so many people think vaccines cause autism. "I vaccinated my child and 6 months later he was diagnosed with autism. Cause and effect!"
  - mjburgess 7y ago
    Shame about your downvotes -- I guess people don't want to believe that vac. scepticism can be a reasonable conclusion from limited evidence. Well: it is. Autism is a childhood disorder (therefore) whose symptoms usually follow vaccination. It is not unreasonable to hypothesize a causal link. It may be unreasonable to maintain it in light of other evidence (eg., no difference in rate amongst the non-vax'd). But people don't live in the macro (ie., comparative contexts) they live in the micro (ie., their own experience). And its hard to communicate macros to micros.
  - rimliu 7y ago
    a.k.a. post hoc ergo propter hoc
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
kzzzznot 7y ago
It is also possible that the fact you watched John Wick puts you in a category of people that would own a handgun.
andybak 7y ago
And a 1000 other times you discussed a different topic your facebook feed didn't show ads for it.
- jason46 7y ago
  Well this instance spooked me because I hadn't done any kind of lookup for anything "gun" related. While anything I search for is usually what shows up in my feeds. I'm usually not a "tin-hatter" and seems far-fetched, but it spooked me.
moksly 7y ago
I’m not sure what I think is more scary when these scenarios pop up. Being listened to, or companies being able to predict my behaviour before it happens based on the data they’ve got on me.
jahewson 7y ago
I had the same experience but I was just thinking about it! Somehow Facebook app is reading my thoughts! /s
acchow 7y ago
From an advertisement standpoint, there is so much noise in a microphone signal. It would be helpful for large-scale surveillance so a human could pin-point individual persons-of-interest and listen to what they're saying (big brother style). But that's not how advertisements work.
toomanybeersies 7y ago
How many completely irrelevant ads, which you think nothing of, do you get a day?
ldng 7y ago
For me, until now, this kind of target has only lead to funny anecdotes. Like telling a friend on Whatsapp I just bought new shirt only to receive shirt ads for weeks. Well, too late. Another one is receiving cat food ads because I send a pic of the cat I was feeding while a friend was in vacation. Fail again, I do not own a cat. Good try anyway. But I recon, you're case is creepy. But more likely that the VOD service you use sent data to Facebook.
johnchristopher 7y ago
Frequency illusion or Baader–Meinhof effect: The illusion in which a word, a name, or other thing that has recently come to one's attention suddenly seems to appear with improbable frequency shortly afterwards (not to be confused with the recency illusion or selection bias).[51] This illusion is sometimes referred to as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon.[52] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases Or maybe you watched john wick on netflix or amazon and boom.
- insickness 7y ago
  Or read a John Wick review, bought the movie tickets online or paid for the tickets with a credit card.
UweSchmidt 7y ago
The information that you've watched that movie likely went into the ad-placement algorithm and it then may have decided that you could be interested in guns. Now, is this reassuring? Maybe the ad-placement algorithm with all the data available is much better at knowing who you are and what you want that than recording audio, and extracting meaning from it.

My wife and I were watching John Wick and got to talking about owning a handgun. The next morning my facebook feed was showing me marketplace listings for holsters.

LeoPanthera 7y ago

These kind of corrolation incidents are why the myth exists. The truth is that advertising companies like Facebook don't need to listen to us. They already know more than enough personal information about us to target ads.

esoterica 7y ago
Also explains why so many people think vaccines cause autism. "I vaccinated my child and 6 months later he was diagnosed with autism. Cause and effect!"
- mjburgess 7y ago
  Shame about your downvotes -- I guess people don't want to believe that vac. scepticism can be a reasonable conclusion from limited evidence. Well: it is. Autism is a childhood disorder (therefore) whose symptoms usually follow vaccination. It is not unreasonable to hypothesize a causal link. It may be unreasonable to maintain it in light of other evidence (eg., no difference in rate amongst the non-vax'd). But people don't live in the macro (ie., comparative contexts) they live in the micro (ie., their own experience). And its hard to communicate macros to micros.
- rimliu 7y ago
  a.k.a. post hoc ergo propter hoc

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

kzzzznot 7y ago

It is also possible that the fact you watched John Wick puts you in a category of people that would own a handgun.

andybak 7y ago

And a 1000 other times you discussed a different topic your facebook feed didn't show ads for it.

jason46 7y ago
Well this instance spooked me because I hadn't done any kind of lookup for anything "gun" related. While anything I search for is usually what shows up in my feeds. I'm usually not a "tin-hatter" and seems far-fetched, but it spooked me.

moksly 7y ago

I’m not sure what I think is more scary when these scenarios pop up. Being listened to, or companies being able to predict my behaviour before it happens based on the data they’ve got on me.

jahewson 7y ago

I had the same experience but I was just thinking about it! Somehow Facebook app is reading my thoughts! /s

acchow 7y ago

From an advertisement standpoint, there is so much noise in a microphone signal. It would be helpful for large-scale surveillance so a human could pin-point individual persons-of-interest and listen to what they're saying (big brother style). But that's not how advertisements work.

toomanybeersies 7y ago

How many completely irrelevant ads, which you think nothing of, do you get a day?

ldng 7y ago

For me, until now, this kind of target has only lead to funny anecdotes. Like telling a friend on Whatsapp I just bought new shirt only to receive shirt ads for weeks. Well, too late. Another one is receiving cat food ads because I send a pic of the cat I was feeding while a friend was in vacation. Fail again, I do not own a cat. Good try anyway. But I recon, you're case is creepy. But more likely that the VOD service you use sent data to Facebook.

johnchristopher 7y ago

Frequency illusion or Baader–Meinhof effect: The illusion in which a word, a name, or other thing that has recently come to one's attention suddenly seems to appear with improbable frequency shortly afterwards (not to be confused with the recency illusion or selection bias).[51] This illusion is sometimes referred to as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon.[52] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases Or maybe you watched john wick on netflix or amazon and boom.

insickness 7y ago
Or read a John Wick review, bought the movie tickets online or paid for the tickets with a credit card.

UweSchmidt 7y ago

The information that you've watched that movie likely went into the ad-placement algorithm and it then may have decided that you could be interested in guns. Now, is this reassuring? Maybe the ad-placement algorithm with all the data available is much better at knowing who you are and what you want that than recording audio, and extracting meaning from it.