How Your In-Store Shopping Affects the Ads You See On Facebook

itwbennett writes Facebook has made several acquisitions over the years to help advertisers target their ads and extend their reach. Custom Audiences is one such targeting tool, allowing retailers to match shoppers in their stores with their accounts on Facebook. It's often done through an email address, phone number or name. Facebook won't give hard numbers, but there seems to be a lot of matching going on. For decades, marketers have been trying to understand more about what's happening at the point of sale, 'so their systems are really robust at capturing a strikingly large amount of transactions,' says Brian Boland, Facebook's VP of advertising technology.

Comments

I love contextually useful ads.

[mythosaz]

I employ a number of services on the internet where I am the product. My activities are sold to the highest bidder.

In return, I get head's up notifications about traffic to places I'm likely about to drive to, and I get useful dinner suggestions when I'm out on the town after 7pm. I accept this trade-off. While I've "souled" out to Google primarily, if I used Facebook more than the necessary evil to coordinate large activities with my friends, I'd happily allow them to show me ads for steaks instead of tofu because the know the reward card attached to my phone number saved $0.99/pound on beef last week -- if they're going to show me ads at all.

Bring it on Google and Facebook. Consolidate all of my data. Have at it. I sure as hell wasn't doing anything with it.

...just keep giving me predictive traffic, weather and restaurant options.

Hell, I may even let you read my mail :)

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[Anonymous Coward]

Facebook here. We've noted from your tracking profile that you prefer beef over tofu, and are quite convenience-minded. As such, as a special service for our advertisers, we've provided them both with notification of these characteristics and calculated high probability that you will take an offer of steak web-offered particularly to you at a price $2.00/pound over market average.

A pleasure doing business with you. We hope you continue to find our targeted advertising to your benefit.

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[Anonymous Coward]

says the anon coward, you funny

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[mythosaz]

And, even at $2/lb over market price, should that steak arrive for me in a way that I enjoy it (like cooked and delivered on a night they notice I got home late from work or saw me sit in a traffic jam), I might even use that service.

I know I'm being sold to at every stop. I know there's a steak ad on my homepage instead of a tofu ad, and I know it's either a steak from a competitor who wants my business, or it's a steak from my preferred vendor who wants to lock me in. ...but since I know this, I can make informed decisions about what to do when presented with these ads.

I don't have the level of hubris necessary to say that I'm completely immune to marketing and fashion and trends -- but for the most part I'm an old grumpy man who takes everything with a grain of salt. I can look at the hypothetical steak ad generally recognize when my preferred vendor wants to keep me "theirs" with a deal, and when a competitor is trying to woo me away. I'd rather at least have the extra options presented to me in my preferred categories, because without advertising revenue (or sales of my activities to other data brokers), the services would disappear.

I like Google maps and Waze on top of it. I DNGAF if it knows where I drive to on Wednesday nights (spoiler alert: a poker game). I freely grant the Googles and Facebooks of the world this information in exchange for their services, and in exchange, I view the data they give me with the knowledge of a guy who knows what makes the world go 'round.

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[Anonymous Coward]

They could also alert his heath insurance provider to his preference for red meat over healthier options. His insurer could then generously increase his monthly premium, so as to better cover the colorectal cancer he is more likely to develop.

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[Voyager529]

Why is your personal info so precious to you? I have nothing to hide, if you do that's your problem.

Two reasons:

1.) it's not a matter of having "something to hide". "I have nothing to hide" succinctly illustrates a foundational change in how privacy is viewed. Privacy is a RIGHT that should be compromised only under specific circumstances, at my discretion. "I have nothing to hide" indicates that privacy is seen as a PRIVILEGE requiring a reason for its desire, i.e. "something to hide". The fact that you consider Facebook picking a Coke ad over a Pepsi ad a worthwhile tradeoff for your privacy is all well and good, and I personally am glad that the option is there. The fact that the system is becoming progressively less respectful of the concept of opting out for no given reason, on the other hand, is the problem.

2.) The major issue isn't the opt-in, but the unilateral way it's done. Retail is a science, and I get that...but the fact that opting out is becoming progressively less possible is a problem. If Google wants information about me, feel free to call and ask. I usually participate in surveys for that very reason - they're respectful enough to ask, and allow me to choose which data I wish to provide. Facebook and Google do no such thing.

There's a certain amount of understanding I can have with behavioral advertising. If I Google for "ski resorts Vermont", and they want to show me ads for ski resorts in Vermont, I'm 100% fine with that. I even try to click on ads when I know that they're incidentally what I'm looking for. However, if they're going to send me ads based on my e-mails and Facebook posts, which I cannot opt out of, then that is a different story.

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[godel_56]

Bring it on Google and Facebook. Consolidate all of my data. Have at it. I sure as hell wasn't doing anything with it.

...just keep giving me predictive traffic, weather and restaurant options.

Hell, I may even let you read my mail :)

Heh. What makes you think you have the choice? They probably already are.

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[exomondo]

Privacy is a RIGHT that should be compromised only under specific circumstances, at my discretion.

That's a very broad statement, you don't have a right to privacy in everything you do. I'm not sure why you would have an expectation of privacy with things you put on the public internet or when you go out shopping in public places. If you want privacy then use encryption, once you send data out on to the public net it is going through many hops that you don't control, you should be assuming that data is not private unless you are using an encrypted channel of communication between yourself and the target and - obviously - that you trust that target to keep that data private.

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[vux984]

Your thinking small potatoes.

I'd happily allow them to show me ads for steaks instead of tofu because the know the reward card attached to my phone number saved $0.99/pound on beef last week -- if they're going to show me ads at all.

They'll show you ads for steak alright. But they'll be priced higher than they are for me, because they think your more likely to buy them; and they know you can afford them.

This is already starting to happen. Web sites are showing consumers different prices based on everything from what browser they use to where their ip geolocates to; if they can link that to your browsing profile / facebook account / ...

That's not trading privacy for peronsalized ads. That's letting a car salesman follow you around, root around in your pockets, your garbage, and your bank accounts and then when you drive up on the lot to inquire about a new car.

The tenuous balance of power between buyer and seller will be fundamentally altered. They'll know exactly what buttons to push; exactly what you can afford; and all your preferences and blind spots... so you walk away paying the most for the least.

The idea that they are just going to show you ads for things you want instead of things you don't and make your life better is naive. They are going to make you want things you wouldn't otherwise have wanted or even known about. And you will pay for them exactly the most you can afford, thinking you are getting a deal, and thanking them for taking your money. You will never be any happier, because they'll always know exactly what to show you to make you want more.

I cancelled cable early this year. (and we've got adblockers; and we watch ad free sources like netflix and torrents; and listen to music we've downloaded etc... ) And this last week my wife and I were realizing just how out of tune the whole family was of the advertising cycle.

Our kids "wishlists" for Christmas were both smaller and better thought out than usual. Stuff they had enjoyed at friends houses, stuff they wanted that pertained to their own interests.

I'd go as far as to say we're "happier and more content" due to the relatively limited exposure to ads.

I definitely prefer the advertisers I do still see not tailor the ads to me. I don't want to be constantly bombarded by ads each chosen specifically to push MY buttons. Its better that only a few hit there mark, and the majority are for products I've got no interest in nor use for. Those don't tempt me.

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[LessThanObvious]

There is nothing wrong with that attitude and it isn't all that uncommon, but at the same time it's reasonable for the rest of us not to want that. I had to pay $2 extra for a magazine at the grocery store just so it wouldn't end up in my consumer profile. I don't have a solution for getting Google and Facebook paid without whoring out my personal information, but I really think I should be able to walk into the grocery store and get my discounts for being a loyal shopper without them taking every scrap of information they can and linking it into some damn profile I wish didn't exist. I can choose not to use Google and Facebook, but I really can't reasonably avoid brick and mortar stores. This future cashless society is also going to be a privacy-less society if we continue on our current path. I don't consider it to be in my best interest to have every detail of my existence known by a bunch of corporate marketing weasels. Granted, they don't actually care what I do on a the weekend, they just want to sell me more of whatever that is, but once information is recorded and organized and available online we lose all control of who sees it and for what reason.

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[mythosaz]

Ads have always been contextual. There's more ads for luxury items in the suburbs by me than there are for pawn shops, and there's ads for strip-bars in taxi cabs for drunks and traveling businessmen.

While I can't pretend to be immune to desire - I am mostly human - I take all the advertising I see with a heavy grain of salt.

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[vux984]

Ads have always been contextual.

But they've always been limited to 'demographics'. And while im similar to my neighbors in many ways, we are not all clones.

We're gradually approaching a point where they are marketing to you: personally, because they know you: personally.

That is not a good thing, at least not for you.

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[dreamchaser]

Nobody forces you to use gmail or Facebook though. To you they are a free 'service' but they really aren't a service to you. That's just the carrot. You are the product they sell. Don't want them to have any information about you? Don't use them. I don't use Facebook for that very reason, and I use my gmail for innocuous things and as my spam catcher account. My choices.

Want your email to be as private as possible? Stand up your own server or use a paid service that you think you can trust. Don't want Facebook using any data it collects on you? Great, me either! So don't use it.

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[Falos]

> I get useful dinner suggestions
Jesus OnaRaptor Christ, it sounds like the fucking infections that claim to "enhance your shopping experience". When I was a kid, I wasn't mowing lawns, I was getting paid to wipe away filth like that. Some of us can get traffic and communicate without bending over and "being informed of consumer opportunities."

On the bright side, this PSA will lessen the cancer out there, whether OP is a shill, retard, or clever strawman. I suppose I owe him a fedora tip in the latter.

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[whodunit]

It's the existence of these databases that worries me; not who is making them. If the database exists, the government can and will access them, either through secret warrants or through outright illegal cracking, as the NSA did. I don't much worry about Facebook violating my rights - but what the government might do with the massive facial recognition database Facebook made of their users is a different story.

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[Voyager529]

Two reasons:

1.) it's not a matter of having "something to hide". "I have nothing to hide" succinctly illustrates a foundational change in how privacy is viewed. Privacy is a RIGHT that should be compromised only under specific circumstances, at my discretion.

If it's private then don't put it out in public and companies like facebook won't have access to it.

I'm not talking about being upset with a situation like me saying "I just got a new car!" and then Facebook serving me ads for accessories or insurance. That's a tradeoff I'm okay with, for the very reason you specify. The think that grinds my gears is entirely different, and an example of it just happened today. I have a few PC repair clients. I call, text, and e-mail them. I do not contact them via Facebook. I do not have the Facebook app installed on my phone, we have no mutual friends, they've never e-mailed me at my e-mail address associated with my Facebook account, and I run Ghostery on my browser. To the extent that I can, I've opted out of whatever tracking Facebook lets me opt out of. So, how did Facebook know that I knew these clients? That's information I've not only not given them, but have gone out of my way to prevent Facebook getting. "Because I use the service at all" is a pretty poor reason why Facebook should have that information.

"I have nothing to hide" indicates that privacy is seen as a PRIVILEGE requiring a reason for its desire

No it is the justification for making things that may would have been private by default public instead. Yes previously photos that I took privately remained on my camera, now they are synced to my public folder on my cloud provider. I don't have to do that, but I choose to because it is convenient and I have nothing to hide, that's the tradeoff.

Agreed. Let me give you another example. Back in June, I went with a friend on a road trip to Pittsburgh. In anticipation of this trip, I updated Google Maps on my phone. I don't use it often, and I have auto-updates on my phone disabled, so it was a bit dated. When we got back home, I learned that Google has a "map history" 'feature' that's a part of the Maps app, that show you the routes you took. I was never notified of this change, and again, wherever possible, I opted out of Google's data collection. Maps is "convenient", and Google showing me ads for rest stops and gas stations while I'm driving is an acceptable tradeoff. Retaining that data, when no prompt was given to me? I had nothing to hide during that trip, but it's disrespectful to take data in that manner without giving the user the option to have it not collected. Depending on the tightness of your tin foil hat, there's no guarantee that they aren't taking that data anyway and just aren't showing it to you. "Don't use Maps then" is the likely answer, and I no longer do - I use CoPilot. The fact that the opt-out wasn't made known to me until after the data had been collected? That's not terribly justifiable.

2.) The major issue isn't the opt-in, but the unilateral way it's done. Retail is a science, and I get that...but the fact that opting out is becoming progressively less possible is a problem.

But it is possible, what people are taking issue with is that companies are now taking public data and cross-referencing it, that data wasn't private before and it isn't now.

Who my clients are is privileged information. I sync them with an Exchange server whose owners I know, and explicitly not to Google, Facebook, or anyone else. What I do and don't buy *should* be privileged information (which is why I don't use rewards cards). The cross-referencing is most definitely concerning, especially since the definition of "public" seems to essentially be "any time one human interacts with another", when there should certainly be a spectrum between "private" and "public".

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[Voyager529]

I answered most of your questions in this post, but the tl;dr version is that I don't mind ads based on what I post. I mind ads based on what I *don't* post, i.e. data that's extracted from my behavior. What I post is public. What I don't post is private. Not that hard.

Re:I love contextually useful ads.

[exomondo]

I don't mind ads based on what I post. I mind ads based on what I *don't* post, i.e. data that's extracted from my behavior. What I post is public. What I don't post is private. Not that hard.

Your behavior is public though. If you're not putting it out there then there is no data for them to extract.

Ads

[Archangel Michael]

Ads that follow me and my every mood are a tad bit in the "uncanny valley" area for me. It bothers me that when I open up Facebook, there is always an ad for Hint water. Not because I don't like Hint (I do like it), but rather because I am already being bombarded with adverts for it elsewhere (email). The problem, I don't want more ads for things I'm already buying, and it only makes me want to buy it less.

I am less bothered by Coke ads that are everywhere targeting everyone. Somehow seeing ads on Facebook, for the thing I just googled, really annoys the crap out of me. That doesn't help them sell it to me.

Re:Ads

[Archangel Michael]

If I'm already a customer, they don't need to pound me with more advertisements. It only pisses me off.

A good advertising campaign is one that doesn't feel like advertising. The iconic Macintosh Super Bowl ad is a really good example of an ad. It simple was "there is something coming, you're gonna like it".

Ah cash

[Dereck1701]

Another reason why I don't give my phone number, name, avoid using "rewards" cards, and try to use cash instead of a card. Note though that you have to watch out for family members as well, I suppose it could be a coincidence but I had to run my sister to a convenience store one weekend a couple months ago so she could pick up something that came in a small paper bag, and for the next two days I was getting mostly tampon advertisements in my browser.

Re:Ah cash

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't matter, they can still use facial recognition on you.

And even if you don't have a facebook profile, they have a profile for you.

W T F

[wulfmans]

You still have a facebook account ?

bring it on

[slashmydots]

1. use a Facebook-only e-mail address - CHECK
2. don't have a smartphone (or don't log in to FB on yours ever) - CHECK
3. use a fake name on Facebook - CHECK
4. never give Facebook any of my music, shopping, or any other favorites or preferences on my profile - CHECK

Try again, bitches, you've got nothing on me. And people think I'm paranoid.

Re:bring it on

[danknight48]

Try again, bitches, you've got nothing on me. And people think I'm paranoid.

You might want to do some research on cookies. http://lifehacker.com/5461114/...

- You check your hotmail emails. AdvertCompany1 creates a Cookie
- You do some online shopping on amazon who have a contract with AdvertCompany2 to update that cookie.
- You then goto your "fake" facebook account
- Because Facebook are using AdvertCompany1 and AdvertCompany2, they can obtain all the information from those cookies.

Game over.

Re:bring it on

[slashmydots]

To see what my friends are doing and post stupid memes of course!

Re:Keep up the good work Facebook

[vux984]

It is curiously ironic I think that you don't show me ads for the Tesla, which I looked at at the same time I was looking at the Fusion.

Evidently Ford paid them more to advertise to you.

Re:Our economy is a Ponzi scheme

[Anonymous Coward]

Er, making stuff to sell to ourselves is what every economy SHOULD be. What else is an economy?

Insert advert for Facebook ..

[lippydude]

shhhs !!!!!! Filter error: Your comment looks too much like ascii art.

Re:Facebook ads

[tompaulco]

I haven't seen any ads on Facebook. Either they are so unobstrusive that I just don't see them (and are therefore useless) or I am just very good at ignoring them (and they are therefore useless).
I wonder what will happen when people find out that advertising is just a big scam and for every dollar you invest, you get far less than a dollar back. Goodbye Google, Facebook, MySpace, Slashdot, etc.

Ads?

[edibobb]

Facebook has ads?
[ Link disabled by Adblock Edge ]