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This doesn't seem very effective to me. 99% of people who see an ad like that will not care. It's already common knowledge that Zuck's gonna take your data. "F

This doesn't seem very effective to me. 99% of people who see an ad like that will not care. It's already common knowledge that Zuck's gonna take your data. "Facebook knows I'm a single teacher in Moscow who likes soccer? ... So what? And that's before taking into account that the labels FB/etc. put on you are often incorrect, further diluting the perceived seriousness of this privacy leak.

dharmin007 5y ago
Exactly my thought. The "So what. What do I care if Facebook shows me ads for the things I browsed on Amazon or Etsy. I often discover fun stuff directly from those ads for websites I wasn't even familiar with. On the contrary (and I could be wrong to do so) but I trust some website when I have seen its ad on Facebook, as I know it has been vetted by Facebook to not be some fraud.
- warkdarrior 5y ago
  Plus, it will likely lead me to think "How does this company that advertises on Facebook know so much about me? What kind of shady information practices do they have?"
- Spivak 5y ago
  You're missing an /s for the last bit, right? Like I'm actually with you that really specific targeting is actually great for product discovery and I wish I could harness it for myself not via ads sometimes but there is so much obvious crap and scams on FB/IG ads that it's not even funny. I have more faith that I'll actually get the product choosing a random AliExpress seller than a random Facebook ad.
octocop 5y ago
>99% of people who see an ad like that will not care. You're making quite the assumption here mate.
- Spivak 5y ago
  Flip the number. If your ad for literally anything had a conversion rate of 1/100 you would be over the moon. I think it's quite the overestimation that even 1/100 would do anything on seeing this ad.
ErikVandeWater 5y ago
It's about how it's framed. People don't know how to feel until you tell them. Take for example the obesity epidemic. Obesity is a factor in 20% of all US deaths. People know it is killing them, their friends and their families and don't do anything.
roachpepe 5y ago
The point of ads isn't always to get a reaction. Clicks are the grand goal of course but mere impressions are valued by marketing standards as well. The fact that the target audience sees the ad, even if only passing by while scrolling is widely considered a success by marketing standards. And equally needless to say but I'll say it anyway; that's the very point of Zuck leeching, so the ads will find the target audience. Agree with you there that this isn't much of a privacy leak as the average user mostly knows what's going on. I'd guess the article wasn't really meant to point out a threat to privacy, maybe more on the lines of "FB doesn't want to share it's methods of using the information it gathers". Shocking...
rchaud 5y ago
I agree that these are extremely general categories that could be reproduced by scraping a person's public LinkedIn. What's trickier is when the ads make assumptions about your taste based on the Facebook groups you participate in, and the websites you visit outside Facebook. Those are still connected to you via the Facebook beacons (share widgets) embedded in practically every website.

dharmin007 5y ago

Exactly my thought. The "So what. What do I care if Facebook shows me ads for the things I browsed on Amazon or Etsy. I often discover fun stuff directly from those ads for websites I wasn't even familiar with. On the contrary (and I could be wrong to do so) but I trust some website when I have seen its ad on Facebook, as I know it has been vetted by Facebook to not be some fraud.

warkdarrior 5y ago
Plus, it will likely lead me to think "How does this company that advertises on Facebook know so much about me? What kind of shady information practices do they have?"
Spivak 5y ago
You're missing an /s for the last bit, right? Like I'm actually with you that really specific targeting is actually great for product discovery and I wish I could harness it for myself not via ads sometimes but there is so much obvious crap and scams on FB/IG ads that it's not even funny. I have more faith that I'll actually get the product choosing a random AliExpress seller than a random Facebook ad.

octocop 5y ago

>99% of people who see an ad like that will not care. You're making quite the assumption here mate.

Spivak 5y ago
Flip the number. If your ad for literally anything had a conversion rate of 1/100 you would be over the moon. I think it's quite the overestimation that even 1/100 would do anything on seeing this ad.

ErikVandeWater 5y ago

It's about how it's framed. People don't know how to feel until you tell them. Take for example the obesity epidemic. Obesity is a factor in 20% of all US deaths. People know it is killing them, their friends and their families and don't do anything.

roachpepe 5y ago

The point of ads isn't always to get a reaction. Clicks are the grand goal of course but mere impressions are valued by marketing standards as well. The fact that the target audience sees the ad, even if only passing by while scrolling is widely considered a success by marketing standards. And equally needless to say but I'll say it anyway; that's the very point of Zuck leeching, so the ads will find the target audience. Agree with you there that this isn't much of a privacy leak as the average user mostly knows what's going on. I'd guess the article wasn't really meant to point out a threat to privacy, maybe more on the lines of "FB doesn't want to share it's methods of using the information it gathers". Shocking...

rchaud 5y ago

I agree that these are extremely general categories that could be reproduced by scraping a person's public LinkedIn. What's trickier is when the ads make assumptions about your taste based on the Facebook groups you participate in, and the websites you visit outside Facebook. Those are still connected to you via the Facebook beacons (share widgets) embedded in practically every website.