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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

#271

Post by ben_w »

puppetmaster wrote: post #250

It should be already well understood that free services aren't free. To me the moral issue of the story is how Facebook isn't upfront about "the cost" of the services they provide. You want to use facebook to get in touch with friends? We all now know that you will be targeted by ads customized with every piece of information that you reveal (and some bits that you are not even aware you are revealing...) Assume that…

It is not well understood that they are a service.

To many people it is more like a place, and places are free. Sure, technically you can buy a place and own it and charge for access, and technically somebody owns almost all places you might care to go to, but mostly we think of them as free.

The fact that it costs nothing, monetarily, to access… that very thing often makes something seem like it has no cost.

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

#272

Post by gcb0 »

danShumway wrote: post #265

You can personally decide not to use Facebook, which is good. But you can't convince everybody to do that. So if you or your family members do use Facebook, at least install an ad blocker for all of them. Not for privacy, but to deny them revenue. I block Google ads on every single site I visit, period. I don't care if the advertising is non-obtrusive. If it's being run through Google, part of that revenue is going t…

you gave an idea for a weekend project. posting here in case I change my mind and slack on something else.

instead of deleting facebook (or not having it), create a shell profile, just enough for you family to pointlessly add. then subscribe the account with a service (aka The Idea) that simply post a once a month post on how to install ad blockers and such.

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

#273

Post by philipodonnell »

neotek wrote: post #33
usrusr wrote: post #25

The other really stupid thing, besides generally hurting the adoption of 2FA forever, is that they probably did it for hardly more than scraps, compared to their conventional add targeting capabilities. Maybe I am completely wrong about this, but I'm pretty convinced that almost all of the ad spending for that feature would have reached Facebook's coffers anyways had it not been available.

At Facebook's scale even the scraps can be worth millions. And the sad truth is that the vast majority of people will not be deterred by, be aware of, or even understand the fact that Facebook is abusing their phone number in this way, so as far as Facebook is concerned it's a small bump in the long road to increased profitability.

"Millions" is still scraps to a company with the scale of Facebook

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

#274

Post by beaconstudios »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #255
wmeredith wrote: post #251

It’s a cycle. Facebook has been doing nasty shit and apologizing for it since 2003. I’m starting to think they aren’t actually sorry. https://www.wired.com/story/why-zuckerberg-15-year-apology-t...

Right, because Move fast and break stuff is their mantra. I'm surprised that articles doesn't even mention it. Perhaps Move fast and hurt people would be more honest. I think it's rather catchy.

I think that's already taken by Uber's self-driving car division.

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

#275

Post by bla2 »

danShumway wrote: post #265

You can personally decide not to use Facebook, which is good. But you can't convince everybody to do that. So if you or your family members do use Facebook, at least install an ad blocker for all of them. Not for privacy, but to deny them revenue. I block Google ads on every single site I visit, period. I don't care if the advertising is non-obtrusive. If it's being run through Google, part of that revenue is going t…

> You can personally decide not to use Facebook, which is good. But you can't convince everybody to do that. Pretty scary.

Which means Facebook has a shadow profile of you even if you don't use it at all: http://theconversation.com/shadow-profiles-facebook-knows-ab...

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

#277

Post by saagarjha »

megaman8 wrote: post #246

I think it's much worse when HTC places ads on your phone via bloatware apps that can't be uninstalled. That's absolutely vicious and hardly ever gets any press time. But, oh, facebook makes a minor little slip up and they even FIX the problem and everyone looses their heads over it.

Can't both things be bad?

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

#278

Post by close04 »

secfirstmd wrote: post #247
adpirz wrote: post #239

What's facebook's boiling point? My guess is they'll respond, they'll no longer use 2FA #'s for ads, the damage will have been done, and 99% of the population won't know any of it occurred. We'll repeat this cycle when a fresh revelation occurs months from now, as facebook continues to test how much they can leverage for more ad revenue. But none of it is actually slowing FB down. Its biggest dip in value came from d…

As someone who has occasionally runs experiments with FB adverts for various types of business. I feel it's boiling point will be when people and organisations advertising on the platform really start to look deeply into the value for money they are getting on it. I can't tell you the amount of times I've seen organisations throw money at it in return for dubious clicks from markets they never targeted, bot like user…

So... not anytime soon? As long as FB has real and active users advertisers will advertise and throw money at them.

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

#279

Post by puppetmaster »

sincerely wrote: post #260
puppetmaster wrote: post #250

It should be already well understood that free services aren't free. To me the moral issue of the story is how Facebook isn't upfront about "the cost" of the services they provide. You want to use facebook to get in touch with friends? We all now know that you will be targeted by ads customized with every piece of information that you reveal (and some bits that you are not even aware you are revealing...) Assume that…

Also, it's one thing to willingly give up your own data in exchange for using Facebook etc for free, but often the data they collect could reasonably considered other people's - for instance uploading your contact book to "find friends" tells Facebook what names to associate with phone numbers and helps them build "shadow profiles" (or whatever the term they use is) for users who haven't given them anything.

This is particularly an issue when minors are present in the photo, videos, comments, etc... Dad/Mom/Uncle/Grandma shares a photo of a young family member, and without a doubt a new individual has been added to Facebook's records.

Will our kids resent our posts?

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

#280

Post by philipodonnell »

_Microft wrote: post #101

I had my mobile phone-number appear pre-filled in an add-your-number-to-your-account prompt on Facebook's mobile website while I never provided it in any way to Facebook myself (in the meaning of: neither added it to my account nor mentioned it ever on the website; I never used their apps at all either) . They had farmed it from one of my contacts adressbook obviously. Not surprising that they'd do that but still a d…

TBF that might ave been your browser doing the pre-filling.
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