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Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

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Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#131
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure it's possible to advertise without tracking. We did it for years.

I'd whitelist a true advertiser who ditches tracking entirely and focuses more on advertising content relevant to the page it's going on instead. Chances are if I'm looking at some Python programming page or server setup tutorial I'd be more inclined to click on ads relevant to the page as opposed to a creepy ad of something vague as heck that I looked up on Amazon 5 years ago that Amazon really wants to sell, or wha…

> who ditches tracking entirely

Problem is, it never stays ditched. It's always a slippery slope.

I just don't want to participate in this anymore.

Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The reason I never give fb my mobile Here's the issue with it. You might not give it but your friends would. Therefore, this strategy is pretty useless as network effects kick in.

TIP which I discovered by accident: create a bogus account with your phone number. Facebook will remove the phone number from your account when you do that. You can also use that to check who are your friend who gave FB your phone number.

> You can also use that to check who are your friend who gave FB your phone number.

Can you explain further how this will work?

Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#133
post #21

Another personal observation. I have an Instagram account that I thought was fully incognito. I never connected it to any other social account, I used a separate email for authentication etc. Just days after the Instagram founders left Facebook I started receiving friend suggestion on my IG that were very very relevant. Those were people I knew in real life and mostly connected via Facebook but not only. I shouldn't…

When I was in another country on a business trip I bought a temporary local SIM, originally valid for two weeks but I've kept it active as I travel there often.

I used that foreign number to create my Instagram account and I've gotten the benefit of only being shown suggested accounts from locals from that country (zero people I know). Same goes for ads as well. Currently I keep it on roaming and actually use it to verify other online services that may stubbornly require SMS.

Might be worth a try for those of you looking to pseudo-opt-out of phone number tracking & recommendations on social media services that do this, if you can get your hands on one.

Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#134
post #21

Another personal observation. I have an Instagram account that I thought was fully incognito. I never connected it to any other social account, I used a separate email for authentication etc. Just days after the Instagram founders left Facebook I started receiving friend suggestion on my IG that were very very relevant. Those were people I knew in real life and mostly connected via Facebook but not only. I shouldn't…

I've seen this, and concluded that friend suggestions must use GPS to see who I am near on a regular basis.

Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#135
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd whitelist a true advertiser who ditches tracking entirely and focuses more on advertising content relevant to the page it's going on instead. Chances are if I'm looking at some Python programming page or server setup tutorial I'd be more inclined to click on ads relevant to the page as opposed to a creepy ad of something vague as heck that I looked up on Amazon 5 years ago that Amazon really wants to sell, or wha…

> who ditches tracking entirely Problem is, it never stays ditched. It's always a slippery slope. I just don't want to participate in this anymore.

I'd be fine with "visitor count" type of "tracking" as long as it's just that, as far as how many per country / region. No following users around the web, aka no cookies needed. Then you could have a page for advertisers to choose sites to advertise directly on for themselves.

Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#139
post #138

Didn't we have this discussion already earlier this year and they told us it was an unfortunate bug and that it has been fixed? Yes. Yes. We did: https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/16/17022162/facebook-two-fac...

not relevant

Re: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access To Your Shadow Contact Information

#140
Google has been pushing SMS 2FA a little more aggressively over the past couple of years, too. And I think Apple made it "easier to use SMS 2FA" in iOS 12 for the same reason.

I also said before that this is exactly why Facebook wanted to "verify people's faces for security purposes", too. It just seemed so obvious to me that Facebook would use security as an excuse to get people to put their own 100% accurate face scans into Facebook. It's also because Facebook used the same excuse with the shadow tracking (it's for your own good!), which is as ridiculous as Google claiming Analytics is for website visitors' own good.

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