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Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

americablog.com

61–70 of 98 posts

Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

#62
I have the perfect solution ... Randomly click on articles you have no interest in. I'm sure (other than my nerdism) that my profile is so eclectic that they're totally confused. And if that doesn't work, I don't have a Facebook account.

Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

#64
The article title is inaccurate - "Matt" did know he was gay, he just wasn't out yet. Facebook's ad platform didn't figure it out before he did. Just as in the Target story, the young woman knew she was pregnant, she just hadn't told her father.

The fear mongering is a little high in this article. However, we should stop and think: why is it so scary for others to potentially know that we're gay? Or pregnant? Neither of these is a shameful state.

Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

#65

call me naive, but it has been my impression that Facebook ads are never that sophisticated. He liked a gay-friendly post and then he got served a gay-friendly ad that happened to be about coming out.

To put things into perspective, I told Facebook seven or eight years ago that I was gay and it hasn't stopped serving heterosexually-oriented dating ads in the mix ever since, presumably because a filter on "male NOT currently in a relationship" is close enough...

Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

#66

The article title is inaccurate - "Matt" did know he was gay, he just wasn't out yet. Facebook's ad platform didn't figure it out before he did. Just as in the Target story, the young woman knew she was pregnant, she just hadn't told her father. The fear mongering is a little high in this article. However, we should stop and think: why is it so scary for others to potentially know that we're gay? Or pregnant? Neither…

The nature of privacy is the desire to control what others know about you and how they learn about it. Big Data is making that more difficult for individuals to control and it is making people uneasy.

Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

#67

The article title is inaccurate - "Matt" did know he was gay, he just wasn't out yet. Facebook's ad platform didn't figure it out before he did. Just as in the Target story, the young woman knew she was pregnant, she just hadn't told her father. The fear mongering is a little high in this article. However, we should stop and think: why is it so scary for others to potentially know that we're gay? Or pregnant? Neither…

[deleted]

Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

#68
post #52

This is a bit creepy but it is the kind of thing that could be guessed from facebook activity so it is kind of to be expected. Lately I've been seeing ads that correlate with things that happen to me completely outside Facebook. About things on sites I only access through google for example. I find this more disturbing. I checked the "Block third-party cookies and site data" in Chrome so they shouldn't be able to tra…

I don't know whether or not facebook is doing this, but it is worth knowing that supermarket purchase data is often merged with online profiles. For example, my ISP (Verizon FIOS) buys this data, merges it with subscription information and household data and then "shares" it with their internet advertising service bureau, who happens to be google. They don't need 3rd party cookies in these scenarios because they can…

Is there a way to opt-out of this without paying cash for everything (and avoiding "store discount" cards)?

Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

#69
post #62

I have the perfect solution ... Randomly click on articles you have no interest in. I'm sure (other than my nerdism) that my profile is so eclectic that they're totally confused. And if that doesn't work, I don't have a Facebook account.

On the contrary , they know you are the sort of person who randomly clicks on ads to confuse learning systems.

Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

#70
post #51

This is a bit creepy but it is the kind of thing that could be guessed from facebook activity so it is kind of to be expected. Lately I've been seeing ads that correlate with things that happen to me completely outside Facebook. About things on sites I only access through google for example. I find this more disturbing. I checked the "Block third-party cookies and site data" in Chrome so they shouldn't be able to tra…

Another hypothesis is that Facebook had been showing you the barbeque sauce ad all along, which is why you bought it. You only noticed afterwards.

Facebook also might know that the store only sells one brand of barbeque sauce.
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