10 ms·
Tell HN: FB tracked my sensitive buy outside FB, cant delete a suggestion in app
So I bought a rather sensitive item outside of FB on a retailers' webpage. Thought using private browsing was enough (I always do even for trivial stuff).
Now, somehow FB tracked me, found a similar item in FB Marketplace and shows me it in the main app menu as a suggestion next to Marketplace option. Like in this image, but the white Marketplace panel also has a thumbnail: https://brayve.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/echo/fb_menu_revamp2.png [1]
I deleted all the stuff from ad preferences, "activity outside FB", turned it off completely. I long-pressed the thumbnail and asked FB not to show it anymore, but it persists.
Does the HN crowd know how to disable this crap if asking FB not to show it doesn't cut it? Now I can't open FB in the public... :/
[1] Won't post my own screenshot, because image censorship is easy to screw up, I couldn't find a screenshot with such thumbnail on the web.
- binarymax 6y agoIn which continent or state are you? If in EU you can send a GDPR delete request, and if in California you can send a CCPA delete request.
- justinclift 6y agoDelete your FB account? :)
- offtop5 6y agoI'll do that soon , but too many of my friends ( real life people, I haven't meet anyone from the internet in over 4 years) only can contact me on FB. I do my best to limit my use of FB services
- lilSebastian 6y agoI'm curious. They can't phone or email you?
- NationalPark 6y agoNeither are great replacements for facebook messenger. And other IM tools aren't either because, well, the people you want to talk to don't use them.
- arkanciscan 6y agoEveryone has SMS
- yoz-y 6y agoSMS doesn’t do groups or images. Maybe RCS will one day work?
- zamalek 6y agoMMS does, and does so transparently across platforms (iOS, Android). You must have a very old phone if it does not work for you.
- yoz-y 6y agoBack when it made sense to send MMS messages (i.e. when everybody haven’t had something like WhatsApp) they were ridiculously expensive while sms was free on most plans. Nowadays it’s different but for example on my plan, sending MMS while on roaming is not plain data depending on the destination.
- arkanciscan 6y agoThe criteria was that everyone needs to have access to the messaging platform. SMS checks that box. SMS does not do literally everything, but that's not the most important quality of a messaging platform.
- Zak 6y agoSMS isn't a great option if you're communicating with people in multiple countries, and often not if you're traveling internationally yourself. Signal might be, if only we could get everybody to use it.
- pmlnr 6y agoThey won't. Been there. I asked a lot of people to contact me on phone, sms, email, etc. but not on facebook. Most of them I haven't spoken for years now, ever since I silently deactivated FB. Turns out they were/are not actually interested in me.
- quickthrower2 6y agoBetter that you know. Can invest time in better friends.
- BTCOG 6y agoThis is absolutely untrue. Tell those friends to contact you via text, email, chat messenger, or maybe even a phone call!
- beagle3 6y agoIt's kind of useless. I don't have an FB account, and have about ~300 email addresses with different retailers etc. But some of them have my phone out of necessity. And so do my friends who use WhatsApp. Which means FB know my name, and what I buy from those retailers that share their data and have my phone number. I've recently pondered getting a trunk so I can give a different number to every retailer, like I do for emails. There's very little one can do to avoid FB, when they've managed to turn 30% of the world (literally, and closer to 80% in the west) into snitches on you. Stasi would have been envious. And FB happily provides it to any government who would just ask.
- pb7 6y agoHave you tried reinstalling the app? And perhaps deleting iOS-level app data after deleting but before reinstalling?
- rathel 6y agoDeleted app data completely. Made no difference. (I'm on Android).
- input_sh 6y agoUnfortunately I have no advice to give to you in such a shitty situation, but this is #1 reason why I have never installed any Facebook-owned app on any smartphone I've ever owned (including WhatsApp and Instagram, of course). I still interact with their products when I have to, but exclusively from a browser with an adblock. And Instagram forcing people to install an app to even create an account in its early days was the sole reason why I've never had one.
- kevin_thibedeau 6y agoFacebook worms its way into system apps. Nokia phone camera app pings FB every time you start it up.
- wayvey 6y agoAny source on this? I'd like to find out more. That's really messed up.
- charleslmunger 6y agoYou can see it using Netguard or other vpn based monitoring apps. com.hmdglobal.camera2 contacts graph.facebook.com
- wolco2 6y agoStep 1. Delete the app. Step 2. Logout of facebook on your browser / clear cookies. Step 3. Make all private purchases in firefox. Step 4. Create a new facebook account telling your friends you were hacked. Step 5. Never open facebook in public and don't create that expectation with peers.
- idlewords 6y agoStep 6: Throw your phone and computer in the ocean
- cpach 6y agoIs anyone not feeling this temptation on a daily basis?
- speedgoose 6y agoSadly not. I'm way too addicted to my phone.
- cpach 6y agoI guess that’s why we resist the urge.
- 23B1 6y agoI use https://freedom.to https://freedom.to on my devices and just block truly toxic sites like twitter/reddit in /etc/hosts. Extremely satisfying.
- mikro2nd 6y agoEven wiser: stop after step 3.
- shoulderfake 6y agoI really dont understand why ppl still use fb. There is nothing there that you need. Connecting with family is a phone call away.
- gwbas1c 6y agoAre you sure the data is from the purchase? For example, did you search for similar things before making the purchase? Otherwise, sometimes I suspect ads are targeted by IP. Sometimes I see ads for things my wife is interested in. You might want to try VPN. At least you'll see ads for all the sketchy things other VPN users buy!
- rathel 6y agoI _suspect_ I might have clicked a link for order tracking outside private mode (Gmail's Chrome WebView, go figure...) Now, to prevent such events in the future I installed Firefox on my smartphone along with uBlock Origin. I use FF on desktop since forever, should have used it on mobile as well.
- rglullis 6y agoBrave seems to me better at anti-tracking than Firefox nowadays. Third-party cookies are blocked by default
- ComputerGuru 6y agoJust to provide more domain info: if you’re On iOS, the web view in each app has its own profile/cookie store.
- gwbas1c 6y agoFYI: My neighbor smokes cigars. After I made my post above... I saw ads for cigars. They're probably tracking you via IP.
- dbuder 6y agoOh it's simple, just use the FB/Alphabet support system: Twitter. But make sure you or a good friend have enough social cache or you will be ignored.
- eptcyka 6y agoDid you use the same email address? I backed something on Kickstarter, and the only common factor between that web session and my facebook web sessions was my email address. I suggest you put in a GDPR request to delete everything they have on you.
- mcpherrinm 6y agoDid you purchase the item from a retailer that you gave an email or phone number which matches the one on your Facebook account? If so, I would suspect such an identifier is being supplied by the retailer to Facebook for ad targeting. It could also be your credit card issuer, potentially. Private browsing helps prevent browser-based tracking, but doesn't help at all if both sides are playing together and have ways of correlating your identity.
- rathel 6y agoFor FB, I use an e-mail that is no longer my primary one for almost a decade - all other activity is on a different one.
- Dansvidania 6y agoI applied this same strategy, but I must have let my guard down for a moment and somehow Facebook figured out my new email address. I find this incredibly annoying, and also pretty spooky.
- appleflaxen 6y agoIt doesn't have to be you: your old friend has both, and shares their data with Facebook, Snapchat, and/or Whatsapp (all are Facebook) so you have no hope of concealing this.
- acheron 6y ago> It doesn't have to be you: your old friend has both, and shares their data with Facebook, Snapchat, and/or Whatsapp (all are Facebook) so you have no hope of concealing this. Instagram, not Snapchat, but yes. That's the main part of how they build "shadow profiles" of people without accounts, afaik.
- jjoonathan 6y agoHere I thought I was being paranoid by practicing complete identity separation opsec. Now it turns out to be barely sufficient for dodging targeted ads. Ugh.
- whalesalad 6y ago> Now I can't open FB in the public... :/ Sure you can. Let your freak flag fly man ... I wouldn't be too worried about whatever it is you bought. You bought it after all, didn't you? (I am coming at the context of this being an adult purchase, like a dildo or something) The situation is a bummer, but don't let something in your FB account give you any amount of shame over this.
- globuous 6y agoDepends where you live I guess. Now I assume these ads aren't showing in contries like dubai since I presume they'd be censored at the isp level, but you never know...
- repo001 6y agoNo. You don't get to invalidate someones right to privacy because you've given yours up. The argument that if you don't have anything to hide you don't need privacy has been beaten to death already. And when it comes to sexual preferences there are still many countries/states where being able to hide it is a life or death situation.
- whalesalad 6y ago> No. You don't get to invalidate someones right to privacy because you've given yours up. I am not invalidating someone's right to privacy. > The argument that if you don't have anything to hide you don't need privacy has been beaten to death already. Also not suggesting this at all. I am merely trying to offer a different viewpoint. I interpret the original post as, "I made a mistake, I need need help fixing this so I am not found out" - to which I would say no mistake has been made. That is all I am saying. If you really value your privacy you don't use Facebook, it's that simple... you can't have one foot in the door and the other outside and think it'll work to your favor.
- quinndiggity 6y ago> I am not invalidating someone's right to privacy. You are saying that not having the choice to choose what to share is acceptable though. Privacy isn't about having something to hide, it's about having the same rights you have with your day-to-day thoughts; you aren't forced to shout every single thought that pops into your mind, you are able to pick and choose what you would like to express and share. Privacy and encryption aim towards that goal.
- strunz 6y agoI'm pretty sure Facebook does simple IP address tracking to serve ads. I've noticed my wife and I both get served ads for things the other has recently searched for.
- amichal 6y agoNot just Facebook, lots of folks do this. I was reading an news article on my phone on NYT just yesterday while someone else in the house was buying things from a big online clothing store (not amazon) on her phone at the other end of the couch. In real time the ad slots on the article on my phone switched to show ads for the site she was buying from and for similar products. The had previously been showing me something i bought a few days ago.
- rtsil 6y agoI have 2 Youtube accounts on which I watch completely diffent types of videos. One is on Chrome, the other inside a Firefox Container. When I do a google search or just browse something in Chrome, the YT account inside FF will recommend me videos related to the search / browsing, even if they're not at all related to the videos I watch on that account. The YT account on FF will also regularly suggest me videos related to the ones I watch on my Chrome YT account. The reverse doesn't happen: my DDG searches and FF browsing never bleed on Youtube. Google (and many others) doesn't care about private mode, separate accounts, profiles or containers.
- forgotmysn 6y agoFYI using a "private window" in your browser makes your traffic private to pretty much no one. it just means that the browser won't collect certain data, but will still collect some, and everything else that tracks you still tracks you
- EE84M3i 6y agoI mean, the two reasons to use a private browser window are to 1) log into a service twice at the same time. 2) watch porn and not have it saved to your browser history.
- slenk 6y agoYou can accomplish #1 with the Multi-Account Container extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account-containers/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account...
- boogies 6y agoAt least in Chrome or Edge. FF and Brave enable some basic tracking protection in private windows, and the latter also gives you the option of obscuring your IP adress with Tor.
- fsflover 6y ago> basic tracking protection Which does not help at all: https://panopticlick.eff.org https://panopticlick.eff.org.
- yumraj 6y agoYour IP address, browser fingerprinting (despite the private browsing) and so on. There are just too many ways to identify you, and therein lies the problem. If this kind of thing is concerning to you, you have no option but to delete the FB account. EDIT 1: Removed MAC address from my comment, which was incorrect as noted below. EDIT 2: This is a test that is available from EFF to test your browser fingerprinting: https://panopticlick.eff.org/ https://panopticlick.eff.org/
- dvt 6y agoFB also has "shadow" accounts, so even this may not be super helpful.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- elisaado 6y agocan Facebook see your mac-address?
- jzzskijj 6y agoHow are merchants and Facebook getting your MAC address?
- ev1 6y agoFB app, and several merchants run .swf and java applets that request MAC locally and upload it. Also enumerate WebRTC for lan FB used to also websocket portscan your localhost + LAN on login from a fbsbx.com domain that also attempted to load native code/windows media player playlists/SWF/Java/Shockwave
- Zak 6y ago> FB used to also websocket portscan your localhost + LAN on login from a fbsbx.com domain that also attempted to load native code/windows media player playlists/SWF/Java/Shockwave That's straight up malware behavior.
- chsp 6y agoIt is more likely the retailer uploaded this purchase to Facebook with hopes to target you in the future. If you used the same email address or the phone number associated with your Facebook account at the checkout, Facebook "enriched" your interest graph with this information. In these cases private browsing or a VPN or a using Tor would not help. This is a much common vector for interest targeting at Facebook. Retailers willfully share what you believed would be private with ad targeting platforms like Facebook and Google. Twitter has something similar too I think.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- murukesh_s 6y agoIP Address.. If my wife browse an item, just browse no need to purchase, i get the ads. Also many track you even if you open private browsing [1]. [1] https://github.com/fingerprintjs/fingerprintjs https://github.com/fingerprintjs/fingerprintjs
- arkanciscan 6y agoSeems rather trivial to simply not go on Facebook. I haven't in years and my life has only gotten better because of it.
- Jonnax 6y agoHave a look at these sites: https://amiunique.org/ https://amiunique.org/ https://panopticlick.eff.org/ https://panopticlick.eff.org/ Your browser leaks a lot of information about you
- paule89 6y agoTry using an adblocker. Never see any suggestions again.
- trox 6y ago> Now I can't open FB in the public The problem here is that the ads would still show on other devices that have no ad block.
- nazca 6y agoSocial cooling, IRL. From just a week ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24627363 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24627363
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- wing-_-nuts 6y agoFull disclosure, I nuked my facebook account in 2016. Having said that can't you just block the ads with ublock origin? If that doesn't work, I'd start going one level deeper and start blocking individual javascript files until I found the one that controlled the adverts. None of this may work, but it's worth a shot?
- nneonneo 6y agoI don’t know about marketplace ads, but timeline ads are remarkably hard to block. The only differentiator between timeline ads and regular posts is a little bit of text that says “Sponsored”, and FB absolutely goes out of its way to make it very hard to key on the presence of that text (each character in its own span with randomized CSS IDs, interspersed with random characters, with various CSS hiding techniques, sometimes even using the CSS :after properties to inject extra text). That "sponsored" text is present on every timeline post and just selectively hidden on non-ad posts with the same CSS tricks. So, if your filter is even a little bit wrong, it’ll hide every timeline post and make your adblocker look broken. The solution to not seeing ads on Facebook is to not use Facebook, IMO...
- markosaric 6y agoPrivate browsing doesn't help with this type of tracking. You need to use a browser or a browser add-on that blocks Facebook as a third-party connection. So if any site or app has a Facebook pixel that sends data back to Facebook it will block it from doing so. Alternative is not to use Facebook.
- malwarebytess 6y agoIt's a bit of a nightmare we've created for ourselves, isn't it? How did we get to the point where your purchase at one store has become a kind of commercial gossip bought and sold by companies, leveraged to sell even more things? Why can't a singular purchase be just that?
- everdrive 6y agoAs many commenters have pointed out, Facebook (and a lot of other sites) have many myriad ways to track you, and so something such using private browsing mode was insufficient to protect your privacy. What should trouble you, however, is that this sort of correlation is going on all the time in the background. It's not necessarily always the case that the correlation is made apparent to you. Often times (most times?) it will be totally invisible.
- zigzaggy 6y agoI quit bookface many years ago because of exactly this reason. Well, this and the fact that FB has absolutely blown the trust of keeping all this data on us without it being spilled into the universe every few years. Or worse, used against us politically. Anyway I wish I had a solution other than "delete the account and don't look back," but I don't. I will say that life goes on and those people in your life that really care will find a way to communicate with you. And the ones that don't? I don't miss them at all, really.
- tosser0001 6y agoAre you saying you removed every single item from your "Interests" in ad settings? If you haven't done that before it can take a while to remove all the accumulated topics. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw an ad on FB
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Ambroos 6y agoFor those menu item suggestions, if you long press them you should get the option to remove the preview/suggestion. That should at least make it not show up again in the app menu.
- bloody-crow 6y agoThis point is explicitly addressed in the original post: > I long-pressed the thumbnail and asked FB not to show it anymore, but it persists.
- BTCOG 6y agoStop using Facebook. Sinkhole all Facebook domains.
- pmlnr 6y agoTry using https://mbasic.facebook.com https://mbasic.facebook.com in a browser with adblock.
- SergeAx 6y agoTry to install FB Lite app, it has different design and menu layout.
- kangnkodos 6y agoIs there a way I can make items like this show up on my friend's FB pages? If it's possible, and lots of people do this, and lots of victims complain, then maybe FB will finally give us a method to eliminate certain ads.
- GoodJokes 6y agoRead the book Chaos Monkeys. FB can join their data with credit card company data now, like experian. The best solution is to uh, delete facebook.
- dillondoyle 6y agoTo answer your main question go to link below -> turn off ads based on data from partners https://www.facebook.com/help/568137493302217 https://www.facebook.com/help/568137493302217
- jordansmith 6y agoIncognito doesn’t do much if they have your IP, email, name, user agent, etc. still links you directly to your Facebook account
- ApolloRising 6y agoBuy something cheap and non sensitive in a different category and it will start showing you that. Search for computer parts or something similar.
- TheHeretic12 6y ago>Now I can't open FB in the public... :/ Just poison the data. Break their algorithms by going on a bit of a virtual shopping spree. You wont even have to buy anything, just place in cart and cancel later on. Get those targeted ads replaced with ads for machine parts, woodworking tools, craft supplies, coffeemakers, etc. Make sure you ARE logged in when you do this, so that these results have a higher priority for the algorithm to pull. Some products will also COMPLETELY poison your profile, just like a runaway slave throwing red herring. Anything related to pregnancy or impotence will do this. If they want data, give it to them. Drown them in it. PS. I wind up shopping for parts for my job on my phone all the time, I know this works. Even when you dont have the accounts connected, they do.
- tubularhells 6y agoDon't worry, everybody buys sex toys.
- anongoesprivate 6y agoi lost hope and started using Mozilla with Ublock origin and privacy badger, i know i can't stop billion dollar companies from collecting my data, but with the above combo , at least i can stop them from rubbing my data on my face