Does Facebook listen to our conversations?

By game_over
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Grand Master

game_over

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So, a few weeks a go I am complaining to my partner about a sore face caused by shaving, I said I was going to find some new higher quality shaving products rather than buy the rubbish you can get off the shelf in supermarkets. A few hours later I started seeing 'sponsored posts' on Facebook from companies selling shaving products, I laughed at the coincidence and didn't think much else of it. In fact I even purchased some of the products advertised.

 

A short while later I was complaining of neck ache and blamed it on my pillow and said to my other half I would go out and buy us new ones... within a few hours I started seeing bed/sleeping/pillow companies in 'sponsored posts' all over my FB timeline... could it still be a coincidence?

 

I'm not one for conspiracies, i'm not too bothered if they are listening for 'trigger' words to serve relevant ads but it is worrying that they haven't announced it? (I did Google it before writing this).

 

Anyway, just last night I was talking to a family member who said she was creeped out by Facebook because it was serving advertisements based on things she has spoken about (bearing in mind she has absolutely no idea that I noticed it as well).

 

Coincidence or not?

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Grand Master

+Anarkii Subscriber²

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Yes they infact do listen in on Pvt conversations/messages.
I was once having a sexually explicit conversation with a good lady friend of mine when suddenly her FB account got terminated due to the content of the conversation. (she was just kidding anyway) but yeah. That was all in a pvt messages window between her and I. I got a warning out of it too. 
 

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insanelyapple

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Since they not deleting any content for months, the news feed mechanism for sure analyse our activity and display related advertisement and posts.
 

You're male, talking about shaving that could trigger the sponsored posts.

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+Kyle Subscriber¹

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Are you literally talking about them face to face or are you talking about them over facebook messenger. 

 

If it's over facebook messenger, you will see search results. If you search on Amazon or Google with a Facebook tab open, you will see ads on Facebook for what you searched. (Google: Super Cookies)

 

Yes they infact do listen in on Pvt conversations/messages.
I was once having a sexually explicit conversation with a good lady friend of mine when suddenly her FB account got terminated due to the content of the conversation. (she was just kidding anyway) but yeah. That was all in a pvt messages window between her and I. I got a warning out of it too. 
 

I have a very difficult time believing this. It is not against the terms of service to say anything sexual via instant messenger unless you send adult photos/videos. Even then, they don't immediately terminate the account. Warnings are given and that is all. You are worth much more to facebook as a user than not. 

 

Finally, Let me just explain, Facebook isn't "listening in" the system is storing interests/searches in order to get you to click on advertisements and create revenue. Let's say I searched for an iPad on Amazon and the facebook tab was open in the background, Facebook would see what I searched and show me ads for iPads because that is relative to my interests at the time. 

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Grand Master

MikeChipshop Member

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Yes they infact do listen in on Pvt conversations/messages.

I was once having a sexually explicit conversation with a good lady friend of mine when suddenly her FB account got terminated due to the content of the conversation. (she was just kidding anyway) but yeah. That was all in a pvt messages window between her and I. I got a warning out of it too. 

 

 

I sure hope you forgot to put the '/s' after that because that's absolute tosh.

 

Are you literally talking about them face to face or are you talking about them over facebook messenger. 

 

If it's over facebook messenger, you will see search results. If you search on Amazon or Google with a Facebook tab open, you will see ads on Facebook for what you searched. (Google: Super Cookies)

 

I have a very difficult time believing this. It is not against the terms of service to say anything sexual via instant messenger unless you send adult photos/videos. Even then, they don't immediately terminate the account. Warnings are given and that is all. You are worth much more to facebook as a user than not. 

 

Finally, Let me just explain, Facebook isn't "listening in" the system is storing interests/searches in order to get you to click on advertisements and create revenue. Let's say I searched for an iPad on Amazon and the facebook tab was open in the background, Facebook would see what I searched and show me ads for iPads because that is relative to my interests at the time. 

 

^^ this man speaks the sense.

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Grand Master

+InsaneNutter MVC

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The adverts on Facebook do change depending on what you are talking about. As RedReddington mentioned Facebook data mine everything you do on Facebook, and even a lot about your browsing habits too. This is done via social sharing buttons on websites, such as the ones you see here on Neowin.

 

When using Facebook.com on a PC It's also very likely Facebook log exactly where you mouse is on the screen and for how long too - Source.

 

Everything you do on the internet is data mined, as to how much of that can be linked back to you as a person really depends I imagine.

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Grand Master

+devHead Subscriber²

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Isn't this how Facebook makes a lot of its money?  It uses your conversations and harvests keywords to push specific ads.  

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Grand Master

Anibal P

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The same way Google "reads" your email, they have a bot searching for certain keywords to generate adds, not a big deal to me, don't use that crap anyways, check youor settings, but fairly certain you will get some targeted adds no matter what your settings are 

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Grand Master

game_over

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I'm talking about face to face conversations. I never post anything on my fb account yet it seems perfectly capable of serving ads for things I'm talking about, in person.

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Grand Master

Elliot B.

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I'm talking about face to face conversations. I never post anything on my fb account yet it seems perfectly capable of serving ads for things I'm talking about, in person.

You think they're illegally using the microphone constantly, in order pick up your conversations to deliver you as...?

Paranoid much?

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Grand Master

LaP

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Facebook might very well scan your pm to decide which ads to display.

 

But i highly doubt a human is watching your message ;) it would require millions of workers to do that ...

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dragontology

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Yes, but it's automated.

 

A lot of people think private conversations on the Internet are private. I don't know what all Facebook has got going on on the back end, but I can tell you about forums, like the one we're using here on Neowin. Neowin is using Invision software, but it's much newer than what I used. I used Invision 2.something. The front end is PHP, I believe... I've never been big on programming, but I added all optional and fan/customer made modules my members asked for, so I learned a little bit... but it's been 10 years. Anyway, the database contains all the profiles, all the posts, and all the private messages, and the admin can see it all in plaintext. There is no direct module to read users' private messages, but remember what I said about fan/customer made modules? PM readers definitely exist, and when installed, the admin can supposedly read all the private messages. It shows up as a hidden, admin-only forum, with all the PMs as topics. I never installed this, but if I had a database reader, I could have done it that way. I can also tell you that the people who make Invision have several back doors that, if they decide to, they can come in and completely take over a forum. It's because their software is a commercial product, if you don't have a license, they can shut you down if they ask nice and you tell them to pound sand. But they have also been known to do it if they don't like what you're talking about. If they feel it reflects poorly on their business. I heard about a guy who ran a forum, and a member asked him where to get an out-of-print video game. The admin told him about some old P2P site, and Invision took his forum for it (apparently the game's publisher saw, and complained, but for some reason, not to the forum admin, or the forum admin told them to pound sand, so they went to Invision).

 

I imagine Facebook is different, but if you know the tech (or you vaguely know it like I do), you realize it's basically the same thing. That's not to say Facebook is a message board exactly. But at the same time

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Grand Master

Gerowen

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Nothing you do on the internet is private.  If you're going to participate in a communal service that is owned and operated by somebody other than yourself, then any data you transmit to or from that service is subject to observation.  No matter if you encrypt it, use VPN/Tor, etc., if somebody wants to look at it badly enough, there's nothing you can do to stop them except not connecting to the internet.

 

However, the sponsored posts on your Facebook feed DO look at cookies on your browser.  If you want an example, then go to amazon.com and search for an item you haven't looked for before, and click on the item's page and spend a few minutes reading about it, then go browse your Facebook page.  You will see ads for that product, :-)

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Grand Master

Gerowen

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Here's an example of what I was talking about earlier.  I was browsing various radio related products on Amazon about 20 minutes ago, and saw this one listed so I clicked it just out of curiosity.  Lo and behold, look at what is now being advertised on my Facebook page, :p

 

If they're willing to collect data from cookies that were generated by some completely different website (Amazon in this case, and not Facebook), then having an automated process to screen your "private" chats for key words is not beyond the realm of possibilities I think.

 

post-125978-0-76480700-1422087091.png

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Grand Master

game_over

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You think they're illegally using the microphone constantly, in order pick up your conversations to deliver you as...?

Paranoid much?

 

Nope not paranoid, just curious after a few unlikely coincidences.. i'm not particularly bothered either way.

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Grand Master

vcfan

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funny story, a week ago UPS lost one of my packages,so the UPS guy shows up and gives me a form to sign and leaves.

i go on the computer and pull up neowin. bam, theres a UPS ad on the top of the front page. :shifty:

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Grand Master

PNWDweller

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Here's an example of what I was talking about earlier.  I was browsing various radio related products on Amazon about 20 minutes ago, and saw this one listed so I clicked it just out of curiosity.  Lo and behold, look at what is now being advertised on my Facebook page, :p

 

If they're willing to collect data from cookies that were generated by some completely different website (Amazon in this case, and not Facebook), then having an automated process to screen your "private" chats for key words is not beyond the realm of possibilities I think.

 

Look at this article - they do track your movements on the web by a cookie that watches your visits.

 

http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/facebook-admits-to-tracking-users-as-well-as-non-users-80484.html

 

another:

 

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2011-11-15/facebook-privacy-tracking-data/51225112/1?siteID=je6NUbpObpQ-i4GAyc8ec6Fb7wMd6KNV7A

 

But in reality, more than just Facebook are tracking you, Google and other big players:

 

http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/06/the-cookie-is-dead-heres-how-facebook-google-and-apple-are-tracking-you-now/

 

I combat a lot of this myself with Firefox extension called "Disconnectme" they help block a lot of the tracking that is out there.  If you are really serious about privacy and security on the web you can use special browsers such as Epic browser which is built off of Chrome, but with tight privacy controls.

 

Ultimately, you have a choice to opt out of this, Facebook does not make it easy, but you can find the opt out in your account settings there.  Go to Ads and follow the links.  For the US - they will put you here: 

 

http://www.aboutads.info/choices/

 

It places additional cookies on your system to "block" the "bad ones" or something like that.  Whatever - it is just another step toward watching your back online if you do not want to be tracked. :)

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Grand Master

n_K

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I can also tell you that the people who make Invision have several back doors that, if they decide to, they can come in and completely take over a forum. It's because their software is a commercial product, if you don't have a license, they can shut you down if they ask nice and you tell them to pound sand. But they have also been known to do it if they don't like what you're talking about. If they feel it reflects poorly on their business. I heard about a guy who ran a forum, and a member asked him where to get an out-of-print video game. The admin told him about some old P2P site, and Invision took his forum for it (apparently the game's publisher saw, and complained, but for some reason, not to the forum admin, or the forum admin told them to pound sand, so they went to Invision).

What on earth is this nonsense and why is it posted here?

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Grand Master

123456789A

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Posted

There is a way to prevent this from happening. It also makes your internets a lot cleaner in effect and you will be happy because it will also free up some of your time.

 

You will need to add this to your hosts file:

 

# Zuckerberg
127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 facebook.com
127.0.0.1 static.ak.fbcdn.net
127.0.0.1 www.static.ak.fbcdn.net
127.0.0.1 login.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 www.login.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 fbcdn.net
127.0.0.1 www.fbcdn.net
127.0.0.1 fbcdn.com
127.0.0.1 www.fbcdn.com
127.0.0.1 static.ak.connect.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 www.static.ak.connect.facebook.com

  • Gerowen and Ian W
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