Creepy Facebook surprise

Deno

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No, fb does have tracking, many times I've been on a web page and ads pop up for items I searched or viewed on other sites. If firefox can track your surfing like that its not that different for fb to see people who visit the same website by ip address.

I am sure fb will be used by gov. agencies to gather info and track people. They already used fb to locate suspects in a hacker case in the Ukraine.
 

petite

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I think everyone knows by now that FB uses tracking cookies to gather data to improve their targeted advertising. My doubt is about how useful it is to track people in order to discover who else they might know who also visits the same websites. After all, just look at this website. LPSG has 45,000 active users. Obviously I am not friends with all 45,000 of the members who come here or even 99% of everyone who visits this website on a daily basis, so how would Facebook know which ones are my friends? And this is just one website I visit. I'm a regular at lots of forums and websites, the cumulative users at all of them all easily tops a million users per day. Out of all those users, how would Facebook be able to tell who I do or do not know? It can't. Facebook doesn't suggest more than 100 potential friends to me at any given time. It doesn't work out logically or mathematically that simply visiting a website would tell Facebook who are the people that you know. The reason why Facebook tracks me here is to know whether or not I'd be interested in penis enlargement, for example. If Facebook allowed those kinds of ads (I don't believe that they do) and I was a man, I would be getting ads for penis enlargement along the side of my Facebook because I come here. If I clicked on those ads, it would help Facebook would make money. I don't consider it sinister, even if it's a little creepy, but "cookies" doesn't explain how Facebook knew to suggest Calboner's friend out of the other 45,000 active members who are on this website. Facebook figured it out another way. I would guess that it involves Calboner's address book. Perhaps he gave Facebook permission to access it once and he just forgot about it or he didn't realize that he was granting permission to do that. That sounds more likely to me.
 
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I've had FB suggest people as friends whom I have no connection with, except that I once looked at their profile page...yeah, they're a bit overzealous with their recommendations.
 

bobg4400

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I think everyone knows by now that FB uses tracking cookies to gather data to improve their targeted advertising. My doubt is about how useful it is to track people in order to discover who else they might know who also visits the same websites. After all, just look at this website. LPSG has 45,000 active users. Obviously I am not friends with all 45,000 of the members who come here or even 99% of everyone who visits this website on a daily basis, so how would Facebook know which ones are my friends? And this is just one website I visit. I'm a regular at lots of forums and websites, the cumulative users at all of them all easily tops a million users per day. Out of all those users, how would Facebook be able to tell who I do or do not know? It can't. Facebook doesn't suggest more than 100 potential friends to me at any given time. It doesn't work out logically or mathematically that simply visiting a website would tell Facebook who are the people that you know. The reason why Facebook tracks me here is to know whether or not I'd be interested in penis enlargement, for example. If Facebook allowed those kinds of ads (I don't believe that they do) and I was a man, I would be getting ads for penis enlargement along the side of my Facebook because I come here. If I clicked on those ads, it would help Facebook would make money. I don't consider it sinister, even if it's a little creepy, but "cookies" doesn't explain how Facebook knew to suggest Calboner's friend out of the other 45,000 active members who are on this website. Facebook figured it out another way. I would guess that it involves Calboner's address book. Perhaps he gave Facebook permission to access it once and he just forgot about it or he didn't realize that he was granting permission to do that. That sounds more likely to me.


I agree with you,but wouldn't facebook think coming here would mean that you weren't interested in penis enlargement? :biggrin1:
 

Guy-jin

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I think everyone knows by now that FB uses tracking cookies to gather data to improve their targeted advertising. My doubt is about how useful it is to track people in order to discover who else they might know who also visits the same websites. After all, just look at this website. LPSG has 45,000 active users. Obviously I am not friends with all 45,000 of the members who come here or even 99% of everyone who visits this website on a daily basis, so how would Facebook know which ones are my friends? And this is just one website I visit. I'm a regular at lots of forums and websites, the cumulative users at all of them all easily tops a million users per day. Out of all those users, how would Facebook be able to tell who I do or do not know? It can't. Facebook doesn't suggest more than 100 potential friends to me at any given time. It doesn't work out logically or mathematically that simply visiting a website would tell Facebook who are the people that you know. The reason why Facebook tracks me here is to know whether or not I'd be interested in penis enlargement, for example. If Facebook allowed those kinds of ads (I don't believe that they do) and I was a man, I would be getting ads for penis enlargement along the side of my Facebook because I come here. If I clicked on those ads, it would help Facebook would make money. I don't consider it sinister, even if it's a little creepy, but "cookies" doesn't explain how Facebook knew to suggest Calboner's friend out of the other 45,000 active members who are on this website. Facebook figured it out another way. I would guess that it involves Calboner's address book. Perhaps he gave Facebook permission to access it once and he just forgot about it or he didn't realize that he was granting permission to do that. That sounds more likely to me.

It uses multiple hits to determine who to suggest. For example, both of you visit lpsg and you have mutual friends on Facebook.
 

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Dear Cal of the big boners:

Thanks for starting this thread. I have been unusually suspicious of Facebook and Tweeter since the beginning and have not created accounts for either. Just recently I discovered a strange e-mail address as the main contact on an old Yahoo account. It had been hacked and after a bit of heated calls to Yahoo customer support they admitted that yes, that account had been hacked and the strange e-mail address I had discovered allowed the person who hacked my account to track everything and everyone I contacted with that particular Yahoo account. Finally bought MacKeeper and it was amazing the shit that it found, blocked, and alerted me to regarding other web sites, including LSPG. It would appear that ALL websites have a back door that can be compromised.

Fortunately no one has, as yet, cleaned out my bank accounts or gained access to my American Express account. If any of you have accounts with Bank of America, beware. They have an alarmingly high number of hacked personal accounts. This last tid bit was a major story on the local Vegas evening news last night.
 

petite

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It uses multiple hits to determine who to suggest. For example, both of you visit lpsg and you have mutual friends on Facebook.

If you have multiple friends in common then Facebook already knows there is a relationship between you and will suggest those people as "people you may know." It doesn't need further confirmation by checking to make sure that the two of you also visit the same websites. Facebook tells you who are your mutual friends are when it makes suggestions, but I believe that Calboner has already said that they don't have mutual friends on Facebook. If they did, that would be the answer.
 
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Guy-jin

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If you have multiple friends in common then Facebook already knows there is a relationship between you and will suggest those people as "people you may know." It doesn't need further confirmation by checking to make sure that the two of you also visit the same websites. Facebook tells you who are your mutual friends are when it makes suggestions, but I believe that Calboner has already said that they don't have mutual friends on Facebook. If they did, that would be the answer.

I said it was an example, not the only way. One mutual friend is not enough to move them into the suggestions box usually unless you have many common interests, visit the same sites, etc.
 

lucky8

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I think FB has a tracking cookie that follows you around the web. Similar to Google's new privacy policy change, they now track how you move from site to site. Google also reads contents of emails, so if you're using Gmail, maybe Google is selling their info to FB? Wouldn't surprise me one bit if these 2 companies were colluding. This is why I deleted my FB account 6 years ago...
 

Deno

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FB does not have to follow you, most info can be gathered from your history and files in you cache and cookies that is saved by your browser.
 

bobbyboyle

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Cookie managment is something people should excersise more of. For example, before visiting this site or, hypothetically of course, pornographic content, I will delete all cookies if I've been on some social media or other personally identifying site during that browsing session. The same after too.

Disable all 3rd party cookies. Have your browser clear cookies when you close it. Then hopefully this sort of thing might not happen.

On a similar note, I have actually stumbled upon a member of this site on Facebook as they posted on a public page and their prolife pic caught my eye as being familiar. Now that was a weird feeling. It felt like I'd invaded their privacy by discovering their name. The internet is a mind-fuck.
 

gymfresh

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Fucking hell. Suddenly I appreciate the alarms that have been raised about Facebook's invasion of privacy. It never occurred to me that its data-harvesting went this far, or that it could be put to this particular use.

Time to consider getting the hell out of Facebook!

I know several people who have never had Facebook accounts at all, and I can remember when I reluctantly joined, so I should be able to get along without it.

Sorry you got this scare, Calboner. The second I heard about Facebook about 8 years ago, I knew instinctively it was something I would stay miles away from. Did enough web programming and internet development back in the 90's to realize just what FB's potential was to harvest, store and use. It looked like Gaydar for the general population, only marginally ethical and out of control. It was Doubleclick on steroids.

I get about a dozen pleas a week from friends who insist I'm relegating myself to irrelevance by not being on FB and keeping up there with the several causes and issues I'm involved with. Maybe so, but I'll find other ways to keep in touch (email, phone) with individuals.

As they say, if you're not paying for the product, the product usually is you.
 

Calboner

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Sorry you got this scare, Calboner. The second I heard about Facebook about 8 years ago, I knew instinctively it was something I would stay miles away from. Did enough web programming and internet development back in the 90's to realize just what FB's potential was to harvest, store and use. It looked like Gaydar for the general population, only marginally ethical and out of control. It was Doubleclick on steroids.

I get about a dozen pleas a week from friends who insist I'm relegating myself to irrelevance by not being on FB and keeping up there with the several causes and issues I'm involved with. Maybe so, but I'll find other ways to keep in touch (email, phone) with individuals.
I've been off the site for four days now (I am shocked to see, from the starting date of this thread, that it has only been that long since I deactivated my account), and I sorely miss the platform for posting observations, e.g., on articles that I've read, and reading bits of news from people of my acquaintance. I think that, before I joined Facebook, I used message boards to some extent for the first purpose, but there wasn't any other means for the second one. I know a great many people with whom I am not so closely acquainted that we would ever exchange personal messages just to keep each other informed of ordinary events in our lives, but from whom I am glad to see occasional bits of news, photos, a 20-second iPhone video of their child or their cat doing something cute, and the like. I miss all that. I shall see how I adapt to the lack of it.
As they say, if you're not paying for the product, the product usually is you.
A thought concisely expressed with reference to Facebook in this cartoon.
 
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gymfresh

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I've been off the site for four days now (I am shocked to see, from the starting date of this thread, that it has only been that long since I deactivated my account), and I sorely miss the platform for posting observations, e.g., on articles that I've read, and reading bits of news from people of my acquaintance. I think that, before I joined Facebook, I used message boards to some extent for the first purpose, but there wasn't any other means for the second one.

You may have just explained why so many of my favorite posters on several web boards have seemed to wander off, changing the makeup and relevance of the boards for many of us "left behind". The siren we call FB seems to have hit on the magic formula for roping in and mesmerizing its audience while picking their pockets. Good luck with your separation!
 

Guy-jin

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I've been off the site for four days now (I am shocked to see, from the starting date of this thread, that it has only been that long since I deactivated my account), and I sorely miss the platform for posting observations, e.g., on articles that I've read, and reading bits of news from people of my acquaintance. I think that, before I joined Facebook, I used message boards to some extent for the first purpose, but there wasn't any other means for the second one. I know a great many people with whom I am not so closely acquainted that we would ever exchange personal messages just to keep each other informed of ordinary events in our lives, but from whom I am glad to see occasional bits of news, photos, a 20-second iPhone video of their child or their cat doing something cute, and the like. I miss all that. I shall see how I adapt to the lack of it.

A thought concisely expressed with reference to Facebook in this cartoon.

This is what I use FB for as well. It serves a great purpose for me. There are quite a few smart, insightful people I've met in life who, without Facebook, I would assuredly have grown very far apart from by now.

Anyway, I say let this be a lesson about how attentive you ought to be when browsing the web these days.

Firefox private browsing with the NoScript addon will prevent these types of things completely. Highly recommend trying that (or an equivalent alternative).
 

PacknThick

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That is freaky indeed. I used to use Firefox for visiting websites such as "LPSG" and saved Internet Explorer for my serious email and normal everyday usage. However I got lazy and now I just log off facebook as opposed to keeping me logged in, especially with this new Activity log on the upper right corner where is shows what people are LIKING or commenting on. Then again the cookie thing is a whole new story. I think Facebook is getting a little too invasive.
 

Fuzzy_

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*Post-NSA scandal bump*

How shocking to discover in 2013 that we're being watched by corporations. This sort of thing would never have happened in 2012. :rolleyes:

Today, Obama gave a press conference about government surveillance. He wants to work with Congress to reform FISA and appoint an independent group to monitor surveillance programs.
 
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yeah, i deleted my facebook right around the Snowden NSA revelations, i've also permanently turned off my cell phone. suck a fat dick NSATFBI bastard fucks.