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Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

bbc.com

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Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#141

Post by tfinniga »

rickhanlonii wrote: post #103

They're listening, but not to your voice or with a microphone. Facebook is listening to your data--to all of our data, all at once. They have locations, searches, clicks, messaging, photos, hashtags, and any other form of browsing patterns for everyone in your country, everyone in your neighboorhood, everyone in the same room as you. They have enough data with such advanced analysis that on occasion they can get real…

Right, like the example from Target. It is possible that facebook has access to a stream of Target purchases or credit card purchase information. I'd be 0% surprised if there was a data sharing agreement with credit rating companies.

Even if they just knew the price of the purchase, combined with the job (burn risk) and location data (traveled from work to nearest store with pharmacy during the day), it's possible that you might be able to infer a burn with enough accuracy to be valuable to advertisers.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#142

Post by tenpies »

qbrass wrote: post #140
brad0 wrote: post #97

> "At work, happened to me though earlier this year. Working as a barista, got a burn, talked to my partner in person about it, went to Target, bought the burn cream, and saw an ad on FB for the exact product I purchased. Never searched for product either," wrote Brigitte Bonasoro. Facebook has data sharing agreements with many, many companies. It's most likely that the cream was bought with a card then linked togeth…

I don't see how it's beneficial to the advertiser when the person has already bought the product before they've seen the ad? It sounds like someone is trying to game the advertiser by correlating ad views with sales.

> It sounds like someone is trying to game the advertiser by correlating ad views with sales.

Shhh. If advertisers realize how utterly wasted most of their advertising spending is you'll destroy about 80% of "tech" companies and plunge the world into a global recession.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#143

Post by fiatjaf »

tensor wrote: post #75
ceejayoz wrote: post #72

I'm inclined to dismiss it as confirmation bias, but I've had this experience personally - a conversation followed shortly by an extremely specific advertisement on FB shortly thereafter.

I wonder how likely it is that this sort of thing happens without a mic being involved. Consider that Facebook already mines all sorts of Facebook data, as well as data from websites you visit. They much have a pretty good profile of people's interests. Given that, it's fairly probably that you will be shown ads about things that you are interested in, and it's fairly probably that you'll talk about these topics with…

The odds of something like that happening JUST AFTER you've spoken aloud about it should be small. Too small even for a dozen "random" events, even considering the number of Facebook users.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#144

Post by submeta »

comboy wrote: post #139
submeta wrote: post #133

If they do listen and present you ads based on your conversation, can't you fool it (and test it) by talking about (let's say) buying new running shoes? Shouldn't you observe ads about running shoes? Edit: added missing word

There are some videos of people who did exactly that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=U0SOxb_Lfps

Whoa, pretty creepy indeed

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#145

Post by amigoingtodie »

imroot wrote: post #96

A few weeks ago, I went into a Lenscrafters because I needed some cleaning wipes for my glasses. I have Wifi, Bluetooth, and Location services disabled for Facebook. Someone messaged me on Facebook Messenger, I responded, put my phone back in my pocket, and finished the transaction, and then left Lenscrafters and walked down to the store that I was actually in the mall to see. Within the day, I started seeing context…

Did you pay with cash?

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#146

Post by sillysaurus3 »

tfinniga wrote: post #135
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So... Why should we care? If I had to give my father some reasons why this should concern him, I'd come up blank. Maybe you can fill in a few.

Is your question why privacy is important, or are you thinking of something else?

They have to respect our privacy. The moment they don't, it will cause widespread outrage.

Once I realized that, it was hard to think of reasons why their actions are wrong.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#147

Post by mbell »

imroot wrote: post #96

A few weeks ago, I went into a Lenscrafters because I needed some cleaning wipes for my glasses. I have Wifi, Bluetooth, and Location services disabled for Facebook. Someone messaged me on Facebook Messenger, I responded, put my phone back in my pocket, and finished the transaction, and then left Lenscrafters and walked down to the store that I was actually in the mall to see. Within the day, I started seeing context…

Almost all retailers sell your purchase history. This gets aggregated by various parties and is used for retargeting.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#148

Post by chillingeffect »

There have been plenty of stories of malware eavesdropping over smartphone microphones in the last two years.

I doubt Facebook does it with their app. It's too much trouble, blatantly illegal and easy to get caught. It's most likely malwAre selling the info to fb, who has no idea how any advertisers get their info.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#149

Post by cyberferret »

I was totally skeptical when I first heard stories about people's feeds being curated to suit what they were talking about in front of their computers, but then a couple of things made me rethink my views.

I was in the car with my friend once (both our phones were in the car with us too), and we were driving and it started raining. His wiper blades were shoddy and doing a bad job of clearing his windscreen. We had a 5 minute discussion on cleaning blades, where was the best place to get a replacement, etc. Neither of us picked up our phones, or did a search on 'wiper blades', nor asked Siri etc. about nearest places to buy.

But the next day, for the first time ever, I started seeing ads for wiper blades on my feed. They disappeared after a few days, but it was spooky, as it was for an item that I have never ever discussed, or seen on my feed before, or since.

Another anecdote. I was sitting working in my office the other day, when my son came in to talk to me about something. While chatting, he picked up a bass guitar that sits behind my desk and started playing the riff from 'Seinfeld'. I may have said something like "Oh, the Seinfeld theme - you know that was played on a synth and not an actual bass guitar?". Our conversation though, was about something else altogether.

A day later, on my feed, I see an ad about "How they played the Seinfeld theme" [0]. A totally specific ad like that, within 24 hours, totally unrelated to any searched I had done in my past. This one too disappeared within a couple of days.

[0] - https://twitter.com/dsabar/status/924763005014831104

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#150

Post by tedunangst »

brad0 wrote: post #97

> "At work, happened to me though earlier this year. Working as a barista, got a burn, talked to my partner in person about it, went to Target, bought the burn cream, and saw an ad on FB for the exact product I purchased. Never searched for product either," wrote Brigitte Bonasoro. Facebook has data sharing agreements with many, many companies. It's most likely that the cream was bought with a card then linked togeth…

Or it's coincidence? How many ads does Facebook show to how many people? It would be weird if zero of them were relevant.
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