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Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

bbc.com

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Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#411

Post by dx034 »

libertyEQ wrote: post #333
dx034 wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true and credit card companies are very open about it (at least if you read their reports for investors). The advantage of store cards is that the store knows exactly which products you bought, whereas they only know the total if you used a Mastercard/Visa.

>whereas they only know the total if you used a Mastercard/Visa This is simply not true with respect to the big retailers in the US. This started as far back as '06, though the details of the implementation have changed a bit.

Only if it's a co-branded card. If you use your Visa issued by some bank to go shopping at Walmart, they won't get your personal details together with all items you bought. They can get the items but without the personal details (including age, wealth, etc), they're not that useful.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#412

Post by branchless »

reaperducer wrote: post #392
TAForObvReasons wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rewards cards / loyalty card are designed to incentivize you to spend more with the stores. Ostensibly reselling data is a lot less valuable than directly trying to convince you to shop more at their establishments

That was true at the beginning of the loyalty card phage. But now the big chains are learning how to data mine and discovering the value of their data to others. Now your loyalty card data is worth twice as much. Once to the retailer for internal marketing, targeting, purchasing, etc... and again selling it to outside parties.

thanks, sorry to reply to this late. I often wonder if I take a loyalty card and then for example I purchase twice as much double cream as the next person, does this get sold to health insurers who then charge me a higher premium? The permutations are endless eg too much beer. too many condoms. Too much spicy dip.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#413

Post by scott_karana »

jlgaddis wrote: post #26
sp527 wrote: post #15

Once happened while remarking on the Fruit Loops shake at Burger King. Opened Facebook minutes later and got a Fruit Loops ad. I assure you I don’t message, post, or in any other way remotely suggest an affinity for Fruit Loops. Commenting on it at Burger King was the definition of a one-off incident. I guess another possible explanation is some very sophisticated combination of location tracking and Kellogg’s target…

I was once sitting at a bar having a beer, chatting with the bartender (one of my best friends) and the guy sitting next to me, whom I had never met before. I pulled out my phone to show my friend something that had been posted on Facebook and, while browsing Facebook right after that, the app showed the guy sitting right next to me as the first person under "People You May Know". I had not "checked in" or posted any…

If you both had connections to the same free WiFi, and thus the same IP, it's virtually guaranteed you're at the same location. No GPS required.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#414

Post by scarlac »

denzil_correa wrote: post #175
madeofpalk wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could they respond to remove all doubt they're listening? Edit: https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/3/11854860/facebook-smartpho... In a statement issued on June 2nd [2016], Facebook said it "does not use your phone’s microphone to inform ads or to change what you see in News Feed." That's pretty fucking clear to me. Original comment: If they had said something like "We don't use microphones to gather data to drive p…

My question was NOT "Does Facebook use the phone's microphone to inform ads or change what we see in the News Feed?". It seems you have misunderstood my question. Let me repeat my question again : "What does Facebook use data gathered from user microphones across any devices for?"

I understand what you're asking and you do have to be particularly aware of what /you/ are asking.

That particular question, in context of these allegations, would presuppose that they use microphone data for something other than what the user clearly is aware of, e.g. voice chat.

So an answer like "to provide users the service they need" would undeniably be spun by media to be: Facebook uses microphone to tweak news feed. The longer the answer is, the more likely it can be misunderstood and taken out of context.

You shouldn't expect a public company to answer questions like that, simply because the media will gladly take the answer out of context. You need to phrase it specifically, so they can answer without being misunderstood.

Re: Facebook denies 'listening' to conversations

#415

Post by libertyEQ »

dx034 wrote: post #411
libertyEQ wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>whereas they only know the total if you used a Mastercard/Visa This is simply not true with respect to the big retailers in the US. This started as far back as '06, though the details of the implementation have changed a bit.

Only if it's a co-branded card. If you use your Visa issued by some bank to go shopping at Walmart, they won't get your personal details together with all items you bought. They can get the items but without the personal details (including age, wealth, etc), they're not that useful.

We had the ability to do this at the largest merchant acquirer 10 years ago as long as your bank signed up. Walmart was one of the first customers and would stream SKU-level data straight to our servers from the POS terminal.
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