Facebook

[kinboshi]

Could also be that someone you know has been to the garden centre, and liked their page? Therefore it would come up as a suggestion for you?

Yes,  or if a friend on facebook had searched for the garden centre whilst logged into facebook.

It could also be a coincidence. The garden centre is running a remarketing campaign on facebook, and is targeting people in the local area. It might have been running the ad previously, but it didn't jump out at you. This time you noticed it because you'd just been there.

As for that emotion experiment thing, I'm not keen on facebook running something and sharing it with a third party without telling me. That appears to be a breach of their T&Cs. With Pete Wigglesworth and Dreenie posting their bad beats on a regular basis I'm surprised I don't see ads for the Samaritans all the time on facebook. That or ads for the BNP and Combat 18 after people keep posting links to Britain First.

[Ironside]

That or ads for the BNP and Combat 18 after people keep posting links to Britain First.

that seriously annoys me half the time people have no idea what they are doing and more often than not story is made up or exaggerated .

[teamonkey]

i'm not 100% sure how these things work, but i occasionally have been known to use an "in private" or "incognito" setting on a browser, and still when i log into the various forums i browse, mostly poker or fishing, occasionally work stuff (ROVs), when not "hiding" my history i get a lot of banner adverts for , ahem, "older russian women" etc etc

whereas my good wife tends to have banner adverts for ebay, amazon, shoe shops etc.

so something somewhere is targeting us for our weaknesses..................

[bobAlike]

I am convinced my phone is listening to me when I'm not using it.

I had call today with someone I have never previously met. There were 3 of us on this call and I am not Facebook friends with either of them. This call was done from a landline at a customers site that I have never used before. Today I get back from work and Facebook suggested that I become friends with the 2 people. We have no friends in common, we work for different companies and browsing (stalking) through their FB pages we have no likes in common. This is not an isolated incident.

Anyone else had this happen to them?

[kukushkin88]

It would seem to make more sense that they looked at your Facebook profile. It just links you from there and you get the 'people you may know' message.

[bobAlike]

It would seem to make more sense that they looked at your Facebook profile. It just links you from there and you get the 'people you may know' message.

But how would FB come to the conclusion that I may know them if I have had no prior contact with them?

[doubleup]

On the wider issue, you should always logout of FB Gmail etc when you leave as it is effectively tracking you via plugins on pages.

I had a gmail "change to terms" pop-up the other day that wanted to scan my emails so that it could target adverts based on what was in my gmail account.  Obviously for that to work google has to track me on the various pages where it has its adverts (by being logged on).

Also disable third party cookies on your browser.

To bobalike - the people you met would have looked at your profile

[bobAlike]

On the wider issue, you should always logout of FB Gmail etc when you leave as it is effectively tracking you via plugins on pages.

I had a gmail "change to terms" pop-up the other day that wanted to scan my emails so that it could target adverts based on what was in my gmail account.  Obviously for that to work google has to track me on the various pages where it has its adverts (by being logged on).

Also disable third party cookies on your browser.

To bobalike - the people you met would have looked at your profile

I think that is the most logical answer and probably kills this notion although I feel it's a distinct possibility.

[Doobs]

I have had a few friends in Australia, so have had a few posts from people in Australia replying to their racist friends who have linked to bullshit stories on, what I assume, is the Aussie equivalent of Britain First.  It is called freedom of speech productions or similar.

As I can't even reply to most of them, as I am not friends with the original poster, I was just having to suck it up on facebook.  One day I worked out that if you clicked on the freedom of speech facebook page you could block all future posts from them.  Problem solved I thought, and I am pretty sure I haven't seen any posts from them since that date,

The problem is now that the facebook "suggested site" algorithm has been put together by a complete nincompoop, and it thinks the only possible reason to visit that site must be because I like it. So now when I log in to facebook there is the wonderful freedom of speech productions frequently as facebook's first choice of suggested sites I may want to visit. 

I do think it is almost inevitable I am going to share or like it one day when scrolling down on my phone too.  From that day on, not only will half my friends think I have had a road to damascus moment, and become yet another facebook racist.  Then from then on, I am going to be faced with a whole series of far right sites the facebook algorithm thinks I must want to visit. 

Don't worry, if I am bored with visiting that page, I can always visit "girls with guns", which the nincompoop has decided must also be one of my pet interests.  The whole thing is absolutely baffling.  It is almost as if facebook is trolling me.

[muckthenuts]

Try the Ghostery Chrome App if you're keen to block analytics from collecting data on your browsing habits.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ghostery/mlomiejdfkolichcflejclcbmpeaniij?hl=en

[AdamM]

You see an advert for a shop you'd definitely spend money in (because you already have) and have a friend suggestion for someone you've met and have several friends in common with. Seems quite useful to me.

I don't see the negative impact on anyone's lives with this sort of thing. Your public activity shapes your online experience. Good idea. Better than getting random advert for things you have no interest in, and friend suggestions for people you have nothing in common with.