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0 pointsxlii2y ago0 comments

A scenario from today, context: I don't have Meta/Facebook/Instagram account, my spouse has.

We were discussing haircuts in the morning and I showed her some photos online. 15 minutes later she opened Facebook and saw hairdresser commercial with THOSE EXACT haircuts we were discussing.

I was using iOS with no-track and adblocker on top of that. My guess is that link was made using IP address. Meta/Facebook was processing MY data to which I didn't agreed at any point. Most likely some website (which didn't ask for my permission, as I'm very anal about making sure I disagree to everything) shared this data with Facebook, Facebook linked the dots and voila.

That's my problem.

P.S. We did similar experiment 2 times, once with jewellery and once with specific types of shoes. One using Firefox Focus using home WiFi, second using 5G network. I disagreed to all cookie processing at any point.

WiFi connection was linked, 5G wasn't.

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2 comments · 2 top-level

Brystephor2y ago

> We were discussing haircuts in the morning and I showed her some photos online. 15 minutes later she opened Facebook and saw hairdresser commercial with THOSE EXACT haircuts we were discussing.

Genuine question but what's the harm here? Or what's the negative consequence? I understand that this is creepy, people find it uncomfortable or odd, but what about it is harmful or so negative?

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mliker2y ago

I think this scenario can be described by how upper funnel advertising works, which is that you were exposed to those haircuts in the recent past through general advertising and your spouse, who has similar interests to you by virtue of being your spouse, would be a target for the same type of ad campaign.

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