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I'm not sure how you are drawing that conclusion based on what this post presented: >"Suppose I go to a restaurant, and I booked using my name and phone number

I'm not sure how you are drawing that conclusion based on what this post presented: >"Suppose I go to a restaurant, and I booked using my name and phone number. The restaurant sends that data to Facebook to say "Terence Eden ate at this restaurant on this day." Facebook can then tell if I saw an advert which led me to make a purchase." An ad blocker and not having FB isn't going to stop a restaurant from participating in this FB program. And if you follow the short URL of the Twitter user the author quotes, it links to a Privacy International report that states: Facebook routinely tracks users, non-users and logged-out users outside its platform through Facebook Business Tools. App developers share data with Facebook through the Facebook Software Development Kit (SDK)"[1] So the combination of some random app on someones phone built with FB's SDK and a brick and mortar retail establishment using Facebook Business Tools seems like it is enough to thwart even a fairly ardent privacy advocate. I'm not seeing how an ad blocker would help against the combination of these two things. It's also well known that FB maintains shadow profiles and buys offline data. [1] https://privacyinternational.org/report/2647/how-apps-android-share-data-facebook-report https://privacyinternational.org/report/2647/how-apps-androi...

mdorazio 7y ago
Thank you for the details, but I must still be missing something. FB shadow profiles aren't valuable to anyone unless they also know who you are, which is my point. Say the restaurant sells your transaction data to FB and they add it to your shadow profile... now what? If you're using an ad blocker, FB won't be able to link any other online activity to your profile and ad targeting won't work because you're blocking them. The next step someone would probably say is that other sites you transact on might also be selling your info to FB, but again how is that valuable if they can't know who you are until you either login or enter your payment details? Generally speaking, your profile info is only valuable for advertising (people want to get you to their property to buy things - once you're already there your profile value is a lot lower). If you effectively shut down the advertising funnel entirely what's the issue here. Yes, it's bad from a general privacy standpoint, but what else?
- bogomipz 7y ago
  >"Thank you for the details, but I must still be missing something. FB shadow profiles aren't valuable to anyone unless they also know who you are, which is my point." Shadow profiles are valuable to FB as it provides data on the interests of a FB user's real life friends. I don't doubt there's categories along the lines of "has 2 or more friends who regularly frequent wine bars in West London" or something similar.

mdorazio 7y ago

Thank you for the details, but I must still be missing something. FB shadow profiles aren't valuable to anyone unless they also know who you are, which is my point. Say the restaurant sells your transaction data to FB and they add it to your shadow profile... now what? If you're using an ad blocker, FB won't be able to link any other online activity to your profile and ad targeting won't work because you're blocking them. The next step someone would probably say is that other sites you transact on might also be selling your info to FB, but again how is that valuable if they can't know who you are until you either login or enter your payment details? Generally speaking, your profile info is only valuable for advertising (people want to get you to their property to buy things - once you're already there your profile value is a lot lower). If you effectively shut down the advertising funnel entirely what's the issue here. Yes, it's bad from a general privacy standpoint, but what else?

bogomipz 7y ago
>"Thank you for the details, but I must still be missing something. FB shadow profiles aren't valuable to anyone unless they also know who you are, which is my point." Shadow profiles are valuable to FB as it provides data on the interests of a FB user's real life friends. I don't doubt there's categories along the lines of "has 2 or more friends who regularly frequent wine bars in West London" or something similar.