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While I do support this change from a users' perspective, I find it hard to believe Facebook's official reason to "honor users' choices". What's the real motiva

While I do support this change from a users' perspective, I find it hard to believe Facebook's official reason to "honor users' choices". What's the real motivation behind this Facebook update?

bellyfullofbac 5y ago
"Your ad was shown to 2 people" but it was 1 person. Multiple that by however many haven't linked their accounts, and FB is charging you^W advertisers twice to show the ad to the same person. TFA: >If only a small percentage of your target audience has linked their accounts, when you run Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns, you'll (falsely) see that you're reaching double the number of "people" (i.e. accounts). After all, Facebook will count that one person as two, if your ad shows both on Facebook and Instagram.
Aaargh20318 5y ago
I'll give you a hint: it starts with an M and rhymes with 'honey'.
- ghostbrainalpha 5y ago
  Mummy..? I don't see what Egyptology has to do with this conversation.
  - crate_barre 5y ago
    I was thinking Mahoney. I can see the reasoning from FB, like why should all of FB’s products be counted as one view? If the same person goes to FB then YouTube, the advertiser should need to pay FB and YouTube. The same is true for Instagram. We can’t shit on everything FB does.
  - cercatrova 5y ago
    Mummy doesn't rhyme with honey
    - ben_w 5y ago
      It does in my accent?
      - cercatrova 5y ago
        "m" doesn't rhyme with "n" though, what accent is yours? I'd say money rhymes with honey but not mummy.
RNCTX 5y ago
It would be wise to stop believing what corporations say. They tend to lie. Do you really believe that Facebook doesn't know if someone has multiple accounts if they failed to seek out a Facebook setting to link them together? This is the same Facebook that lifts data from people's phones even if they opt out of giving them that data.
orev 5y ago
It’s a way to goose the numbers to make it look like more people saw an ad than really did. This type of tactic is usually employed when a company is facing a real decline in users/views, so they start coming up with “creative” ways to make numbers look better than they really are.
TedShiller 5y ago
> What's the real motivation behind this Facebook update? Money
dado3212 5y ago
The cause is likely not money or goodwill: it’s legal privacy rulings. GDPR and the FCO ruling [1] have made it so cross-platform data (like the IG-FB data here to guess if two ad spend users are the same) isn’t allowed without explicit consent. My guess is that’s what’s driving this. [1]. https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/7/18215143/facebook-whatsapp-instagram-third-party-user-data-combined-banned-germany-fco-competition https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/7/18215143/facebook-whatsapp...
- alfongj 5y ago
  This is the right answer. Matching user data without consent is becoming fairly risky from a data regulation standpoint, as well as user perception.
- mttddd 5y ago
  yep, its because of the FCO ruling. The other thing I think everyone spouting money are missing is that FB would much rather be able to use the link between your FB and IG accounts to better serve you up ads based on that combined data.
ahahahahah 5y ago
It may have went like this: 1. Facebook believed that the best thing for users was to have one account and identity across all services 2. Users expressed that they thought this was terrible 3. Facebook reconsidered, now thinks it's best to support accounts that aren't linked

While I do support this change from a users' perspective, I find it hard to believe Facebook's official reason to "honor users' choices". What's the real motivation behind this Facebook update?

bellyfullofbac 5y ago

"Your ad was shown to 2 people" but it was 1 person. Multiple that by however many haven't linked their accounts, and FB is charging you^W advertisers twice to show the ad to the same person. TFA: >If only a small percentage of your target audience has linked their accounts, when you run Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns, you'll (falsely) see that you're reaching double the number of "people" (i.e. accounts). After all, Facebook will count that one person as two, if your ad shows both on Facebook and Instagram.

Aaargh20318 5y ago

I'll give you a hint: it starts with an M and rhymes with 'honey'.

ghostbrainalpha 5y ago
Mummy..? I don't see what Egyptology has to do with this conversation.
- crate_barre 5y ago
  I was thinking Mahoney. I can see the reasoning from FB, like why should all of FB’s products be counted as one view? If the same person goes to FB then YouTube, the advertiser should need to pay FB and YouTube. The same is true for Instagram. We can’t shit on everything FB does.
- cercatrova 5y ago
  Mummy doesn't rhyme with honey
  - ben_w 5y ago
    It does in my accent?
    - cercatrova 5y ago
      "m" doesn't rhyme with "n" though, what accent is yours? I'd say money rhymes with honey but not mummy.

RNCTX 5y ago

It would be wise to stop believing what corporations say. They tend to lie. Do you really believe that Facebook doesn't know if someone has multiple accounts if they failed to seek out a Facebook setting to link them together? This is the same Facebook that lifts data from people's phones even if they opt out of giving them that data.

orev 5y ago

It’s a way to goose the numbers to make it look like more people saw an ad than really did. This type of tactic is usually employed when a company is facing a real decline in users/views, so they start coming up with “creative” ways to make numbers look better than they really are.

TedShiller 5y ago

> What's the real motivation behind this Facebook update? Money

dado3212 5y ago

The cause is likely not money or goodwill: it’s legal privacy rulings. GDPR and the FCO ruling [1] have made it so cross-platform data (like the IG-FB data here to guess if two ad spend users are the same) isn’t allowed without explicit consent. My guess is that’s what’s driving this. [1]. https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/7/18215143/facebook-whatsapp-instagram-third-party-user-data-combined-banned-germany-fco-competition https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/7/18215143/facebook-whatsapp...

alfongj 5y ago
This is the right answer. Matching user data without consent is becoming fairly risky from a data regulation standpoint, as well as user perception.
mttddd 5y ago
yep, its because of the FCO ruling. The other thing I think everyone spouting money are missing is that FB would much rather be able to use the link between your FB and IG accounts to better serve you up ads based on that combined data.

ahahahahah 5y ago

It may have went like this: 1. Facebook believed that the best thing for users was to have one account and identity across all services 2. Users expressed that they thought this was terrible 3. Facebook reconsidered, now thinks it's best to support accounts that aren't linked