Live data from Hacker News

The Creepy Details of Facebook's New Graph Search

eff.org

1–10 of 39 posts

Re: The Creepy Details of Facebook's New Graph Search

#4

Seems to me like Facebook was already using these "creepy details" on a daily basis in targeted advertisements. I looked through the ad process, and you could choose any of the options they have in the article (age range, likes, location, etc.)

I think it's quite different for a company to use "creepy details" to deliver targeting advertising than it is to make that information available to the public in an easily discoverable fashion.

Graph Search is really interesting from a data standpoint, but I don't at all see how it's going to mesh with the realities of how people like their data to be managed.

Re: The Creepy Details of Facebook's New Graph Search

#6
post #4

Seems to me like Facebook was already using these "creepy details" on a daily basis in targeted advertisements. I looked through the ad process, and you could choose any of the options they have in the article (age range, likes, location, etc.)

I think it's quite different for a company to use "creepy details" to deliver targeting advertising than it is to make that information available to the public in an easily discoverable fashion. Graph Search is really interesting from a data standpoint, but I don't at all see how it's going to mesh with the realities of how people like their data to be managed.

How can you feel about clicking on an Ad that matches one interest of yours if you don't know the additional targeting criteria?

The more specific the criteria, the more likely the "advertiser" is a spear fisher.

I can think of a couple exploits (Err- links) one might pay to send to "groups" like: All Oracle employees who like sailboats and tennis. All Universal Health Care employees who like Oracle. All apple employees who hate google maps.

The total cost of these 3 "campaigns" might be $30. You may hit these targets with a wider google campaign, but that would cost more and entail greater risk (i.e. people at mcafee who like nmap and Oracle.)

Re: The Creepy Details of Facebook's New Graph Search

#7
This feature has rolled everyone, by default, into a dating service ("Single females in San Francisco who like Radiohead") and a marketing database ("People under 25 who like Coca-Cola").

This assumes that the advertisers didn't have access to searches like this already. That seems very unlikely.

Re: The Creepy Details of Facebook's New Graph Search

#8
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's quite different for a company to use "creepy details" to deliver targeting advertising than it is to make that information available to the public in an easily discoverable fashion. Graph Search is really interesting from a data standpoint, but I don't at all see how it's going to mesh with the realities of how people like their data to be managed.

How can you feel about clicking on an Ad that matches one interest of yours if you don't know the additional targeting criteria? The more specific the criteria, the more likely the "advertiser" is a spear fisher. I can think of a couple exploits (Err- links) one might pay to send to "groups" like: All Oracle employees who like sailboats and tennis. All Universal Health Care employees who like Oracle. All apple employ…

Do advertisers get information on the specific users who click on their ads? Can you reverse-map an ad click into a Facebook profile?

Re: The Creepy Details of Facebook's New Graph Search

#9
post #3

Just so I understand this correct, if everyone is only sharing things explicitly with friends or friends of friends, doesn't that render the open social graph search useless?

On the advertising side, I don't think it matters what the sharing settings are. We have been targeting on very specific parameters with quite a large reach for a while now.

Re: The Creepy Details of Facebook's New Graph Search

#10
post #8
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you feel about clicking on an Ad that matches one interest of yours if you don't know the additional targeting criteria? The more specific the criteria, the more likely the "advertiser" is a spear fisher. I can think of a couple exploits (Err- links) one might pay to send to "groups" like: All Oracle employees who like sailboats and tennis. All Universal Health Care employees who like Oracle. All apple employ…

Do advertisers get information on the specific users who click on their ads? Can you reverse-map an ad click into a Facebook profile?

No, this isn't possible.
Post reply on HN