Is Facebook eavesdropping on us? The expert told how the social network finds out what we were talking about
The situation when we just talked on the phone about some thing and Facebook immediately offers it is familiar to almost everyone. As soon as you have discussed with a friend the upcoming trip to a Japanese restaurant, you are inundated with sushi ads. Involuntarily, the thought creeps in that the social network is eavesdropping on conversations. Moreover, sometimes it seems that Facebook also reads thoughts. A specialist in the field of digital information protection from the USA told how this system works.
An employee of one of the American companies specializing in information protection has discovered the secret of the social network. It turned out that the effect of "mind reading" in Internet advertising has nothing to do with the chipping of the planet's population and reptilians. The expert created a post in which he described everything very clearly using real examples.
He became interested in this problem by chance. The man spent a week visiting his mother, where he brushed his teeth with her paste. A week later, Facebook offered him an advertisement for this very toothpaste. I must say right away that he never discussed this brand and its products with anyone and did not search for it in Google.
As a qualified IT specialist, the author immediately understood how it works. I understood and decided to tell others, because I was sure that it scares many people. No, neither Facebook nor any other social network eavesdrops on conversations and even more so does not read people's thoughts. This is another stupid conspiracy theory.
Applications installed in our smartphones collect a lot of all kinds of information about us. These are geolocation, personal data, preferences in choosing sites and much more. There are aggregators of information that collect any data about a person. This is a product that sells well. Paying in a store with a discount card, you give someone data about what, where and at what time you bought.
Purchases are easy to link with Facebook accounts. The same email address and phone number may appear when registering a bonus card and a social network account. Almost all service agreements contain a clause on consent to the processing of personal data. Most often, it is typed in small print and is almost invisible.
Many people know about this, or at least guess. And now the real revelation. When you are near a person for some time, the network records that your gadgets are located in the same GPS location. This person is automatically added to your environment. Advertisers are interested not only in your preferences, but also in what your environment likes.
You begin to be shown ads for what people from the environment were interested in, for example, toothpaste. What if you forgot to buy it and are just waiting for a reminder from a caring Facebook! Surrounded are family members, friends, colleagues and even neighbors at the entrance. You see ads based on their interests. You can not eavesdrop or read thoughts, but simply analyze their purchase history and search queries.
Is it possible to fight this? Theoretically yes, but it's almost fantastic. To stop the advertising frenzy, all you need is for everyone to turn off the app tracking history. And since this is unlikely to happen, you need to put up with it and watch ads for things that interest others. Yes, your preferences also become someone's irritant, do not forget about it.
Another Facebook problem is censorship. It infuriates many no less than intrusive advertising. Recently, the social network brought Austrian museum workers to the handle, who preferred a porn site to it.