Facebook ads weird me out. Sometimes they know things...

[staceyobu]

I know there has been discussion on this before. I have had really odd experiences with facebook ads.

 

Recently, I bought new undies at Target. Didn't google anything about them. Paid with my debit card. Sat in the car after walking out of Target and looked at facebook. Ad for the exact sort of underwear I have just purchased. Can't remember ever seeing an undies ad on facebook before or since.

 

One night I was laying in bed looking at facebook and talking with DH. We discussed a place we hadn't been in a long time. Immediate facebook ad for that place. And, it was some odd place too, not like Disney.

 

There are several times I have noticed things I discuss with others seem to immediately become ads. DH has googled and apparently there are people suspicious that facebook does listen to you through your phone, but of course facebook denies.

 

I know it could be a case of thinking about something and then noticing it everywhere. But, there have just been so many weird incidents. Very specific incidents. And, incidents that I am confident happened without looking online for information. Sometimes it seems tied to my debit card purchases. Other times it seems tied to discussions. It's just creepy.

[rebbyribs]

I got an ad about a year ago suggesting that I should make a baby registry.  I was nervous that maybe Facebook knew something I didn't.  (I got pregnant 3 months later and am due any day now.)

[ReadingMama1214]

Facebook creeps me out so much. It is like being spied on. I haven't noticed what you described, but I do know that if I look at anything online, it will pop up as an ad. It's just too much for me sometimes. 

[PrairieSong]

Well that is weird. I've received the ads based on web sites I've visited but have never noticed the ads correlated to something I'd only been talking about. Even if it's a coincidence, it's weird. I hate the ads, too.

[happypamama]

I find it weird when FB shows me ads for something I've just bought. Like, why? I already bought it!

 

I definitely see things show up as FB ads that I've viewed on Amazon or eBay, but nothing that I've just talked about. That's creepy! (I don't have a smartphone, and DH keeps his downstairs, so maybe that's why.)

 

The other day, DH sent me a link from his iPhone to my iPad, via iMessage, for a guitar he likes. An unusual one, not many of them out there. I copied the link and viewed it on my iPad. Didn't go to FB right then at all, and I don't think it was open on my iPad. Later, I went to FB on my laptop, not the iPad -- and the ad for that exact guitar showed up. Creepy! (I guess it was because I use the same email address for my iPad that I do for FB, but it was weird.)

[BlsdMama]

A friend just posted about this exact thing on FB.  She has the FB smart app.  She was TALKING to a friend about a faulty smoke alarm and how she needed to buy another.

 

Later, when she got on her computer to check FB there was an ad for smoke alarms.  She had not googled them to purchase or research at all. 

Creepy.

DH has been wanting me to get rid of FB for a long, long while... Since I got it. ;)

[Southern Ivy]

I can just read about something on here, then when I go to google something similar, that same topic or question pops up. :/ 
It's not FB, but it's still creepy. 

[Upward Journey]

This conversation has been going on for awhile....

 

http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-listens-2015-02/

[SparklyUnicorn]

Then again how effective is an advertisement for something you just bought?  LOL

 

But yeah I know what you mean.  Gotta be careful what you joke about on Facebook too.  Might get some ad for something really weird.

 

 

[wapiti]

I heard on a morning radio show that there are phone apps that listen to you unless you disable them (I don't know what ones; I don't have any apps that were not pre-installed and I can't seem to get rid of the factory-installed ones).

 

My personal guess is that FB is not the listening issue but just the advertising mechanism.  I get ads on other pages as well, including my hotmail page.  Lately I've been getting them for eyeglass frames again when I haven't even searched for them and haven't mentioned this out loud to anyone.  I wonder if there's a way to cover up the microphone on my computer the way I covered up the camera...

[DesertBlossom]

This isn't facebook related, but the other day I watched the first Fuller House episode on Netflix on my phone. I wondered why Michelle wasn't in it. So I opened up a chrome window and typed in "why isn't" and immediately the auto-fill provided "Michelle on Fuller House" or something to the effect. Kinda creepy that they guessed my question before I could type in any more information than "why isn't..."

[Woodhaven]

This conversation has been going on for awhile....

 

http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-listens-2015-02/

 

Thanks for the link!

[PrairieSong]

I think we could combine this thread with the mattress store conspiracy theory and spin a very interesting tale.

[J-rap]

Not just Facebook related...

 

I remember when I first discovered that my computer remembered items I was looking up and plopped them in as ads on various random websites.  I had been looking for an old book that was no longer published, which I had had such a tough time locating.  I finally found a random third-party site that was selling it through an antique store.  Suddenly, that same book was being advertised on practically every website I went to!  I couldn't figure out why the very book I wanted which had been so difficult to find was suddenly a seemingly best-seller, available everywhere!  haha  :)

 

 

[J-rap]

Okay, I just remembered something even creepier.

 

One of my best friends from high school is in charge of planning our class reunions.  For our 25th reunion, she and I were emailing back and forth, talking about various classmates we hadn't heard from in ages.  I asked her if she knew anything about a high school in-class buddy of mine who I hadn't been in contact with since we graduated.  He was one of those really eccentric whiz-kids in high school, and he and I happened to sit next to each other in many classes and got to know each other quite well.  

 

Within about 24 hours of asking her that question, I received an email from him, completely out of the blue!  He said he had just been thinking of me and wondering how I was doing, and had gotten my email from a friend of a friend.  (?)

 

He works for the government in computer forensics, and I always figured he must have had some kind of a tracking system on his name or something...  Really weird.  I even straight out asked him if he had done that, but he denied it.  

[JumpyTheFrog]

That article was really creepy. It makes me really glad that when I had Facebook I didn't use it much and that I have never installed any social media apps.

[PinkTulip]

This kind of really freaks me out. Does anyone know how to check to make sure the microphone is disabled for these different apps? I have twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, but not the Facebook app on my phone.

[Tanaqui]

Okay, I just remembered something even creepier.

 

One of my best friends from high school is in charge of planning our class reunions.  For our 25th reunion, she and I were emailing back and forth, talking about various classmates we hadn't heard from in ages.  I asked her if she knew anything about a high school in-class buddy of mine who I hadn't been in contact with since we graduated.  He was one of those really eccentric whiz-kids in high school, and he and I happened to sit next to each other in many classes and got to know each other quite well.  

 

Within about 24 hours of asking her that question, I received an email from him, completely out of the blue!  He said he had just been thinking of me and wondering how I was doing, and had gotten my email from a friend of a friend.  (?)

 

He works for the government in computer forensics, and I always figured he must have had some kind of a tracking system on his name or something...  Really weird.  I even straight out asked him if he had done that, but he denied it.  

 

Well, that's surely bizarre, bit at least it has a logical explanation that isn't tracking - he was thinking about the reunion, same as you!

 

This entire thread is reminding me of this Facebook prank.