Now, somehow FB tracked me, found a similar item in FB Marketplace and shows me it in the main app menu as a suggestion next to Marketplace option. Like in this image, but the white Marketplace panel also has a thumbnail: https://brayve.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/echo/fb_menu_revamp2.png [1]
I deleted all the stuff from ad preferences, "activity outside FB", turned it off completely. I long-pressed the thumbnail and asked FB not to show it anymore, but it persists.
Does the HN crowd know how to disable this crap if asking FB not to show it doesn't cut it? Now I can't open FB in the public... :/
[1] Won't post my own screenshot, because image censorship is easy to screw up, I couldn't find a screenshot with such thumbnail on the web.
There are just too many ways to identify you, and therein lies the problem.
If this kind of thing is concerning to you, you have no option but to delete the FB account.
EDIT 1: Removed MAC address from my comment, which was incorrect as noted below.
EDIT 2: This is a test that is available from EFF to test your browser fingerprinting: https://panopticlick.eff.org/
Use Tor Browser.
FB used to also websocket portscan your localhost + LAN on login from a fbsbx.com domain that also attempted to load native code/windows media player playlists/SWF/Java/Shockwave
Step 2. Logout of facebook on your browser / clear cookies.
Step 3. Make all private purchases in firefox.
Step 4. Create a new facebook account telling your friends you were hacked.
Step 5. Never open facebook in public and don't create that expectation with peers.
Private browsing helps prevent browser-based tracking, but doesn't help at all if both sides are playing together and have ways of correlating your identity.
One of Facebook's largest businesses is allowing companies to advertise against first-party data, ie lists of activities the customers upload. Crucially, these don't require a cookie sync; facebook matches against any of name, phone, zip9.
https://www.facebook.com/business/help/2082575038703844?id=2...
Naturally, there's not really a way to buy something without presenting this information to the retailer.
What can help OP is this: if in CA, go to the ecommerce company and submit a Do Not Sell request. If in EU, submit a deletion request. NB: for the latter, they will be able to retain information like shipping, etc. If in none of the above geos, hope the retailer is nice and gives the whole world the same rights.
Also, I think FB recognizes residential IP addresses and associates activity from the same IP. I occasionally see Friend recommendations with ppl from ppl that I shared the same IP address with, but normally would not know.
Edit: You can also go into your FB ad 'privacy' settings and turn off some of the targeting stuff, for instance 'Ad based on data from partners'. You can also dig around there for a log of partners FB thinks you've 'interacted' with. Turning this stuff off gets rid of the spookiest ads and things like retirement facilities ads because you set your age to 103 when you created the account.
I find this incredibly annoying, and also pretty spooky.
This is the problem, so many companies are harvesting our data now it's almost impossible to know how your personal data is being acquired anymore.
That being said, another thing to look out for is sites and apps running Facebook's integration crap. If the e-commerce site in question is running Facebook's code on the site, FB could easily correlate the data (IP address, browser fingerprint, etc.) and connect it back to you even if you are using Private Browsing.
Sure you can. Let your freak flag fly man ... I wouldn't be too worried about whatever it is you bought. You bought it after all, didn't you?
(I am coming at the context of this being an adult purchase, like a dildo or something)
The situation is a bummer, but don't let something in your FB account give you any amount of shame over this.
The argument that if you don't have anything to hide you don't need privacy has been beaten to death already.
And when it comes to sexual preferences there are still many countries/states where being able to hide it is a life or death situation.
I am not invalidating someone's right to privacy.
> The argument that if you don't have anything to hide you don't need privacy has been beaten to death already.
Also not suggesting this at all. I am merely trying to offer a different viewpoint. I interpret the original post as, "I made a mistake, I need need help fixing this so I am not found out" - to which I would say no mistake has been made. That is all I am saying.
If you really value your privacy you don't use Facebook, it's that simple... you can't have one foot in the door and the other outside and think it'll work to your favor.
Otherwise, sometimes I suspect ads are targeted by IP. Sometimes I see ads for things my wife is interested in.
You might want to try VPN. At least you'll see ads for all the sketchy things other VPN users buy!
Now, to prevent such events in the future I installed Firefox on my smartphone along with uBlock Origin. I use FF on desktop since forever, should have used it on mobile as well.
They're probably tracking you via IP.
Which does not help at all: https://panopticlick.eff.org.
I do my best to limit my use of FB services
I still interact with their products when I have to, but exclusively from a browser with an adblock.
And Instagram forcing people to install an app to even create an account in its early days was the sole reason why I've never had one.
I was reading an news article on my phone on NYT just yesterday while someone else in the house was buying things from a big online clothing store (not amazon) on her phone at the other end of the couch. In real time the ad slots on the article on my phone switched to show ads for the site she was buying from and for similar products. The had previously been showing me something i bought a few days ago.
The reverse doesn't happen: my DDG searches and FF browsing never bleed on Youtube.
Google (and many others) doesn't care about private mode, separate accounts, profiles or containers.
The solution to not seeing ads on Facebook is to not use Facebook, IMO...
The problem here is that the ads would still show on other devices that have no ad block.
> I long-pressed the thumbnail and asked FB not to show it anymore, but it persists.
Anyway I wish I had a solution other than "delete the account and don't look back," but I don't. I will say that life goes on and those people in your life that really care will find a way to communicate with you. And the ones that don't? I don't miss them at all, really.
What should trouble you, however, is that this sort of correlation is going on all the time in the background. It's not necessarily always the case that the correlation is made apparent to you. Often times (most times?) it will be totally invisible.
In these cases private browsing or a VPN or a using Tor would not help. This is a much common vector for interest targeting at Facebook. Retailers willfully share what you believed would be private with ad targeting platforms like Facebook and Google. Twitter has something similar too I think.
Just poison the data. Break their algorithms by going on a bit of a virtual shopping spree. You wont even have to buy anything, just place in cart and cancel later on. Get those targeted ads replaced with ads for machine parts, woodworking tools, craft supplies, coffeemakers, etc. Make sure you ARE logged in when you do this, so that these results have a higher priority for the algorithm to pull. Some products will also COMPLETELY poison your profile, just like a runaway slave throwing red herring. Anything related to pregnancy or impotence will do this. If they want data, give it to them. Drown them in it.
PS. I wind up shopping for parts for my job on my phone all the time, I know this works. Even when you dont have the accounts connected, they do.
Your browser leaks a lot of information about you
Why can't a singular purchase be just that?
I honestly can't remember the last time I saw an ad on FB
If it's possible, and lots of people do this, and lots of victims complain, then maybe FB will finally give us a method to eliminate certain ads.
