Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

If Logged into Facebook, Oculus VR Data Will Now Be Used for Ads

extremetech.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 194 posts

Re: If Logged into Facebook, Oculus VR Data Will Now Be Used for Ads

#71

Post by throwaway77384 »

adgineer wrote: post #48

FB ads engineer here. Every time I read these threads, I'm 1. Flattered by how sophisticated HN thinks our systems are (they're not. and we're not that smart. FB's A-team stopped working on ads a long time ago) 2. Entertained by how HN thinks ad targeting works (we don't want to know everything about YOU. we want to know basic info about all of our users.) Hypertargeting doesn't work. Targeting small audiences doesn'…

Just wanted to chime in and say kudos for speaking up. That sure is a risky thing to do. Unless, of course, this is just more smoke and mirrors.

I like to believe it is not.

Re: If Logged into Facebook, Oculus VR Data Will Now Be Used for Ads

#72

Post by Nextgrid »

adgineer wrote: post #57
CJefferson wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With regards your last paragraph, is there any evidence of this? Any place Facebook says "we do not, and will not, use information X for ad targeting"?

Not sure if there's a public document as granular as "information X", but that $5b FTC settlement came with a bunch of policies. Also, the "clear history" feature should be rolling out (or maybe it already rolled out in your country) that lets you dissociate any 3rd party info from your profile.

> the "clear history" feature should be rolling out

Your company has proven it cannot be trusted and will do anything it can get away with and has already crossed the line of "lying is totally OK, and if we're caught we're just gonna publish a bullshit PR-speak fake apology".

Why should anyone trust it this time?

Re: If Logged into Facebook, Oculus VR Data Will Now Be Used for Ads

#73

Post by ceejayoz »

Nextgrid wrote: post #68
adgineer wrote: post #48

FB ads engineer here. Every time I read these threads, I'm 1. Flattered by how sophisticated HN thinks our systems are (they're not. and we're not that smart. FB's A-team stopped working on ads a long time ago) 2. Entertained by how HN thinks ad targeting works (we don't want to know everything about YOU. we want to know basic info about all of our users.) Hypertargeting doesn't work. Targeting small audiences doesn'…

Your systems are sophisticated enough to make people believe their phones are listening to them in the background even when that's not the case. So even if you think they are primitive, a lot of people thinks they're more than sophisticated enough to be creepy.

Facebook's not helping this conspiracy theory with their "why did I see this ad?" dialog. I'll see a clearly hyper-targeted ad (for example, a psoriasis medication) and click that button and it'll say "they wanted to reach people in the United States between 18-65!"

I know I was targeted by that ad. I know they're just showing me the most general bit of the targeting info that was used to put that ad in front of me.

The dialog even obnoxiously says "There could also be more factors not listed here." Yes, I know, that's fairly obvious. I clicked the dialog to figure out what those were.

Re: If Logged into Facebook, Oculus VR Data Will Now Be Used for Ads

#74

Post by Nextgrid »

throwaway77384 wrote: post #71
adgineer wrote: post #48

FB ads engineer here. Every time I read these threads, I'm 1. Flattered by how sophisticated HN thinks our systems are (they're not. and we're not that smart. FB's A-team stopped working on ads a long time ago) 2. Entertained by how HN thinks ad targeting works (we don't want to know everything about YOU. we want to know basic info about all of our users.) Hypertargeting doesn't work. Targeting small audiences doesn'…

Just wanted to chime in and say kudos for speaking up. That sure is a risky thing to do. Unless, of course, this is just more smoke and mirrors. I like to believe it is not.

I agree. I have no reason to believe what they say is true, but even if it's all lies it's nice to see their perspective and be able to talk to them.

Re: If Logged into Facebook, Oculus VR Data Will Now Be Used for Ads

#75

Post by gummydog »

adgineer wrote: post #58
aphextron wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>FB ads engineer here. Just wanted to stop by and say that your work is actively making the world a worse place to live, and you should feel bad about it. I hope those RSUs are worth your soul.

Feels pretty good to subsidize internet access in the developing world and serve as the primary growth engine for millions of small businesses who wouldn't otherwise be able to reach their customers at such a low cost.

...and accelerate the concentration of wealth and power to the point where the top 10% are starting to complain about the top 1%. Moving into developing nations is just the system expanding to extract what little surplus value they create.

Re: If Logged into Facebook, Oculus VR Data Will Now Be Used for Ads

#76

Post by Ajedi32 »

Nextgrid wrote: post #68
adgineer wrote: post #48

FB ads engineer here. Every time I read these threads, I'm 1. Flattered by how sophisticated HN thinks our systems are (they're not. and we're not that smart. FB's A-team stopped working on ads a long time ago) 2. Entertained by how HN thinks ad targeting works (we don't want to know everything about YOU. we want to know basic info about all of our users.) Hypertargeting doesn't work. Targeting small audiences doesn'…

Your systems are sophisticated enough to make people believe their phones are listening to them in the background even when that's not the case. So even if you think they are primitive, a lot of people thinks they're more than sophisticated enough to be creepy.

Is there any evidence to suggest those rumors are actually the result of unusually high levels of sophistication on the part of Facebook's ad targeting systems, and not just an artifact of confirmation bias and the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon?

Re: If Logged into Facebook, Oculus VR Data Will Now Be Used for Ads

#77

Post by thdrdt »

adgineer wrote: post #48

FB ads engineer here. Every time I read these threads, I'm 1. Flattered by how sophisticated HN thinks our systems are (they're not. and we're not that smart. FB's A-team stopped working on ads a long time ago) 2. Entertained by how HN thinks ad targeting works (we don't want to know everything about YOU. we want to know basic info about all of our users.) Hypertargeting doesn't work. Targeting small audiences doesn'…

"2. Entertained by how HN thinks ad targeting works (we don't want to know everything about YOU. we want to know basic info about all of our users.)"

I'm sorry but this sounds so naive to me. As you say in your last paragraph Facebook was tracking a ton of info about everyone. This is why a lot of people distrust Facebook. You might find this entertaining but this happens when you spy on people. We can't know what Facebook does with the data.

There are also people who targeted a friend as prank and succeeded. So it is possible to target very specific people. With enough money you can do a lot of evil with this (Cambride Analytica).

Because we don't know how they use the data a lot of people now actively block requests to Facebook when they visit a website.

I don't think this is very entertaining.

Re: If Logged into Facebook, Oculus VR Data Will Now Be Used for Ads

#78

Post by gummydog »

optymizer wrote: post #62
aphextron wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>FB ads engineer here. Just wanted to stop by and say that your work is actively making the world a worse place to live, and you should feel bad about it. I hope those RSUs are worth your soul.

Whether ads (in general, or specifically FB ads) make the world a worse place is up for debate, but the casual hatred in your comment directed at this person is actually making this world a worse place to live in.

Facebook taught the world it's acceptable to communicate this way. Don't bore us with your well thought out comments.

Re: If Logged into Facebook, Oculus VR Data Will Now Be Used for Ads

#79

Post by orbifold »

adgineer wrote: post #48

FB ads engineer here. Every time I read these threads, I'm 1. Flattered by how sophisticated HN thinks our systems are (they're not. and we're not that smart. FB's A-team stopped working on ads a long time ago) 2. Entertained by how HN thinks ad targeting works (we don't want to know everything about YOU. we want to know basic info about all of our users.) Hypertargeting doesn't work. Targeting small audiences doesn'…

I mean sure, that is why Computer Vision research at Facebook doesn’t have multiple papers on scene segmentation and understanding, where they take kitchen scenes for illustration. Your all in one home appliance spying device surely wouldn’t be used in such a way. Of course. Not to mention that in all likelyhood both the microphone and camera are hot while using WhatsApp or Facebook.

Re: If Logged into Facebook, Oculus VR Data Will Now Be Used for Ads

#80

Post by t-writescode »

normalnorm wrote: post #63
fhood wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it is fair to anonymously denigrate someones life choices particularly when you have no idea what that person does specifically, and there is ABSOLUTELY a place in this world for advertising on the internet.

We all know exactly what they do. I don't care what the OP does specifically, they are collaborating in building something that makes the world worse for all of us. > there is ABSOLUTELY a place in this world for advertising on the internet I have no idea what this means. What I do know is that adtech turns everything it touches into shit.

You’re right, we do know what they do. They probably work on the video game Beat Sabre. (recently bought by Facebook).

Facebook is a large company, and I hate them just fine; but I don’t hate all of their employees and not all of their employees are evil.

Post reply on HN