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Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

americablog.com

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Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

#71

Post by argonaut »

I wonder if anyone here has actually tried running a Facebook ad campaign and has seen the results? I have, and Facebook is not nearly as sophisticated as this article and many commenters are making it out to be.

The article makes a claim with a very unsubstantiated sense of certitude:

> Matt’s two comments, along with other data points ... led Facebook to estimate that if you lined a hundred people with characteristics identical to Matt’s, a significant number of them will be closeted gays

At best, the article can state Facebook might have estimated that Matt was a closeted gay. I seriously doubt that. Facebook (on the ad manager) only estimates that 14 million people are interested in the "Gay" topic. And it only estimates that 4 million are interested in the LGBT topic. Looking at those numbers, those figures are probably drawn off like pages. Even if Facebook were trying to sneakily indirectly profile everyone, they're doing a bad job of it.

The more likely explanation is that this is a coincidence due to someone targeting their ads at people interested in liberal politics (which Facebook would know from liking a politician).

The paranoid, Occams-razor-butchering explanation is the one the article gives.

I'd wager that for every closeted gay that was targeted this ad, 50 other not closeted-gays saw this ad and thought it was weird and then moved on.

Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

#72

Post by conorgdaly »

umtrey wrote: post #28
TDL wrote: post #2

I remember a while back that Target had to back of a similar approach when it began sending out coupons to women that they suspected (w/ apparently a high degree of accuracy) were pregnant. The main anecdote was about a father who found out his daughter was pregnant because they started to receive the coupons. Target eventually backed off this approach (at least for newly pregnant women) because many of their custome…

Tesco was the first company to really do this right - there's a book called Scoring Points[1] that outlines this in details. By using the detailed profiles of customers, they learned that giving discounts on products customers cared about was much more valuable than just giving discounts based on vendor preference. A fan of Coca-Cola will come in to buy a Coke, but won't buy Pepsi, no matter if it's on sale or not. […

For those with sub to Safari, Scoring Points is available there:

my.safaribooksonline.com/book/-/9780749453381

Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

#73

Post by a_c_s »

commanda wrote: post #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…

Nothing wrong with being gay/lgbt. But in many states in the US you can legally be fired or denied housing on the basis of being lgbt.

Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

#74

Post by mgkimsal »

tomkinstinch wrote: post #68
trotsky wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)?

don't tie a store discount card to your real name/email/phone numbers?

Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

#75

Post by camus »

a_c_s wrote: post #73
commanda wrote: post #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…

Nothing wrong with being gay/lgbt. But in many states in the US you can legally be fired or denied housing on the basis of being lgbt.

really ? i thought USA was the land of the free ...

Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

#76

Post by trotsky »

tomkinstinch wrote: post #68
trotsky wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)?

I think switching where you shop is probably the most practical - it's rare for independent groceries to have such a program, and the smaller the chain the less likely they are to be selling shopping data on. Under a certain volume it's apparently not appealing to bother doing the deals to buy it.

Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

#77

Post by logn »

Evbn wrote: post #13
amirmc wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they stopped it. Just adjusted it so the offers we're alongside random stuff (eg discounts on lawn mowers). That way people wouldn't freak out (presumably because they didn't know how much the company really knew about them) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.h... Edit: Worth posting the whole quote (just found it). “With the pregnancy products, though, we learned that some women…

Offering alcohol to someone you know is pregnant, ugh.

Because it's inconceivable that a pregnant woman might be buying things for someone not pregnant. Anyhow, as the others pointed out, it's part of the randomness disguise.

But this type of marketing is creepy and invasive. No one likes this because we're basically powerless to choose an alternative. My fiance is marketed tampons on Facebook during the correct time of the month. Because of things she bought on a shopper's card. Disturbing. The real impact will be when your rates on all types of insurance are affected by this data. Or when employment decisions are made.

Re: Facebook knows you’re gay before you do

#78

Post by killerdark »

camus wrote: post #75
a_c_s wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing wrong with being gay/lgbt. But in many states in the US you can legally be fired or denied housing on the basis of being lgbt.

really ? i thought USA was the land of the free ...

Your freedoms don't extend to your employment (never has). Regarding your employment you've willfully signed away most of those rights (freedom of expression etc) when you signed your contract.
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