[Closed] Is it possible to stop Facebook spying on you?

Yes - don't use it.

Rachel

Easily avoided if you want. You can turn off targeted ads so you get random ones instead. You can also do your browsing in an incognito window or even use a special browser like duckduckgo

Easiest is not to use FB but even then they have a habit of setting their tracking cookies which are what does the spying.

Next easiest way would be to use one browser for FB and another for everything else.

I just have my browser set to never remember anything, and open a fresh browser for facebook, and close the browser when im done, and ope a new one to continue browsing.

Is this not Amazon and Ebay saving cookies out, Facebook's adverts are just targeting using those?

Clear cookies and shop in a private window if you really don't like it. You'll most likely just get adverts aimed at your gender/age/usage, which I usually find even worse.

Is your problem that the ads or targeted or that there are simply too many ads? You can probably resolve the former but, since you can't resolve the latter, I'm not sure why you'd want to sort the former. Surely it's better to have relevant ads than irrelevant ads*

*or is the relevancy what's causing the issue 😉 😆

I get bombarded with adverts on Facebook for similar items.

You won't get bombarded. You'll get the same number of adverts, they'll just be for one thing rather than another thing.

The funny thing about that method of advertising is you notice it because its so bluntly targeted - following your search and browse history then trying to advertise stuff that you've already satisfied you're curiosity about. You read an article/search for/click on a link for a particular pair of shoes and you either buy the shoes or don't like the shoes, or can't afford them or they're not in your size....... then a few minutes later you get adverts saying 'Hey look at these shoes that you've either already bought or don't like'

You'll most likely just get adverts aimed at your gender/age/usage, which I usually find even worse.

So you want to use their service, but you don't want to give them anything in return? That makes sense....

@mac I believe there is some research showing a benefit to showing you ads to things you've just bought - but I can't imagine how that works, nor am I sure that's what they are actually doing. But I certainly get Amazon ads for things I've just bought *from Amazon* so they ought to know that I've just bought it!

I always assumed it was intended to nudge you into buying that thing you've spent your lunch break 'window shopping' for on the internet.

But I agree, I don't understand what the problem is, but I suspect it's a reaction to the unsettling experience (realisation?) that your browsing history is collected, and shared.

Currently in my mind as I watched Snowdon last night. 😯

On a slightly different tack, my wife was called on her mobile on Saturday by somebody who had never called her before. [i]Within an hour[/i] this person had popped up on [b][i]MY[/i][/b] Facebook in the 'people you might know' section. [i]That[/i] is sinister.

On a slightly different tack, my wife was called on her mobile on Saturday by somebody who had never called her before. Within an hour this person had popped up on MY Facebook in the 'people you might know' section. That is sinister.

yes this also happened to me yesterday. A text from someone who I have no 'internet' link or contact with at all, suddenly appeared as a suggested friend on facebook. I dont even have the facebook app installed, but access facebook in a browser on my phone.

There are loads of browser plug ins to stop FB and other sites following you across other sites..

[url= https://www.ghostery.com/ ]Ghostery[/url] is the most universal

There are also several FB/ Twitter specific browser plug ins which stop those sites following you.

I run this lot..

[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/740/32099547580_6dff51689c.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/740/32099547580_6dff51689c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/QUwzaw ]Browser Plugins[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

Maybe they'd looked you up on Facebook.

Yes - don't use it.

Too true. Works for me.

[b]@barkm[/b] - yes, but it was my wife's phone that was called - not even my device. That must be in contravention of privacy laws or something?

That is sinister.

Nothing sinister about that at all if you think about it. You and your wife clearly know each other. Your wife and her friend clearly know each other and probably have some friends in common. Either prior to of after that call your friend probably looked her and/or you up on Facebook. Facebook makes suggestions to you based that third persons Facebook searches and page views. When they are saying 'someone you might know' they're making that assumption based on the fact someone has looked for you (or looked for people you have close involvement with) and if that person knows you then you probably know them.

Also, FB own WhatsApp, which has access to your phone directory (unless you barred it). This means they can match all your contact phone numbers / emails with everyone else and see who knows who...

But I agree, I don't understand what the problem is, but I suspect it's a reaction to the unsettling experience (realisation?) that your browsing history is collected, and shared.

I guess it is.

A text from someone who I have no 'internet' link or contact with at all, suddenly appeared as a suggested friend on facebook.

I have had similar. Where the link came from I have no idea. No mutual friends, no contact online. My phone number isn't my current one, so I have no idea how they knew I knew him?

Another weird thing with my MS account - got a new netbook over Christmas, logged into my Windows account for the first time on that machine, using my personal email address.

The netbook automatically downloaded my employers wallpaper!

The only link was that I had put that mailbox on my works Outlook on another machine.

So does Office 365 spy on you as well?

Tinfoil hat time.

It's not sinister if you consider that it's no different to talking to strangers in a public space. If you go into a shop and say 'I'm interestd in X' and they say 'we've also got Y and Z', that's entirely normal. If their manager then asks them how many people have asked about X, the assistant might tell them. Just remember that on FB it's no different. Your comments and actions are both publicly available AND owned by FB. If you 'like' something, the originator knows you've liked it. And FB know everything you've liked. Same as on here. If you like a company, you're basically inviting ads from them.

If you go in with your eyes open, it's just another service.

Pretty much everything is being tracked and has been for a long time ever since cookies, they're just getting a lot clevererer at cross referencing and processing it.

So does Office 365 spy on you as well?

You know those terms and conditions you clicked through and accepted? Try reading them.

And it's not tinfoil hat time. Tinfoil hats (metaphorically) arise from governmnets snooping on things that should be private. You've willingly used these services that have published T&Cs, and you can choose not to use them.

The netbook automatically downloaded my employers wallpaper!

W10 does upload your settings to the cloud so you can synchronise them across devices. You might've linked work and personal email somehow. I have both on my work device and can switch, and have, so perhaps I'd get the same thing.

The funny thing about that method of advertising is you notice it because its so bluntly targeted - following your search and browse history then trying to advertise stuff that you've already satisfied you're curiosity about.

Indeed. A little while back I clicked on a link on an STW post to an eBay store which turned out to be some well-endowed lady employing her assets to sell lacy underwear. Since then I keep getting Facebook ads to the same / similar store, "feeling inspired? Take another look."

A text from someone who I have no 'internet' link or contact with at all, suddenly appeared as a suggested friend on facebook.

You've got no link with them but that doesn't mean they don't have one to you. Its a two way street. They took the initiative to contact you by text not the other way round - its their actions not yours that matter but you don't know what the full extent of their actions are. They may have taken other initiatives as part of looking you up prior to / subsequent to texting, searching for your contact details, saving those details in an app that they've given their Facebook profile access to, looking you up to make sure they're not mixing you up with another Barkm, wondering where you went on holiday, hoping you posted pictures of yourself in a bikini and so on

A text from someone who I have no 'internet' link or contact with at all, suddenly appeared as a suggested friend on facebook.

WhatsApp sends all your contact list to FB, so all phone numbers and emails are known......

Indeed. A little while back I clicked on a link on an STW post to an eBay store which turned out to be some well-endowed lady employing her assets to sell lacy underwear.

It's the Mods trying to make some money on the side....

There are some browser plugins out there that allow you much greater control over guff in your feed than FB do, without automatically blocking ads. FB Purity is one.

allthegear - Member
Yes - don't use it.

Not even this works. They once got caught tracking and building shadow profiles of people who didn't have facebook accounts.

footflaps - Member

WhatsApp sends all your contact list to FB, so all phone numbers and emails are known......

They've also done far more than this. I've had it suggest someone I'd never known as a friend, and with some digging found out the only thing connecting us was our forum usernames on a single forum. That I'd never linked to from Facebook.

If you have the FB app check it doesn't have access to your microphone. Mrs Beaker and I had noticed the odd thing from a conversation we'd had appear on ads. We turned off access after Mrs Beaker had her phone next us during a conversation about her broken handbag, and had mentioned she was going to send it back to the manufacturer for repair. Lo and behold adverts for said handbag company all over her FB. She hadn't googled or anything like that, it could only be that FB was listening.

Clear Cookies everyday/Session

Turn off third party cookies.

Run an advertising blocka UBlock Origin is my favourite atm.

Run No Script.

Alternatively use a separate browser just for Facebook.

If you have the FB app check it doesn't have access to your microphone. Mrs Beaker and I had noticed the odd thing from a conversation we'd had appear on ads. We turned off access after Mrs Beaker had her phone next us during a conversation about her broken handbag, and had mentioned she was going to send it back to the manufacturer for repair. Lo and behold adverts for said handbag company all over her FB. She hadn't googled or anything like that, it could only be that FB was listening.

Didn't we discuss this a while back and conclude that this was somewhere between confirmation bias and mince?

FB Purity hides all the guff, and gives quite comprehensive settings to personalise the guff hiding too.

Not sure that it stops or cuts down spying though, so I run Ublock Origin, Privacy Badger, etc. as well. Disconnect.me is another.

Also running FB specifically in an incognito window, and before that even in a different dedicated browser, but it still "knows" stuff from somewhere.

None of the above are freeloaders. They all block dodgy tracking, which often/usually has the side effect that ads... erm... "fail to appear" 😉

Phone numbers... Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, et al will never get my mobile number from me. They'll try to wrap it up as security, but it's really there as a very reliable way to know that this is you. If FB know my number, it's because they have tricked someone else into sharing their entire phone book. Thank you for asking for permission.

Ok, so I had a conversation in real life with a friend about Polaroid cameras, never looked at anything online, the very next day an advert for Polaroid popped up on my Facebook feed...

never looked at anything online

... though your friend probably did?

I got a new phone at Xmas, there is now a photo of my bike in the snow from 2012 in my photos folder - just EFF right off google, I bought a phone with a camera for me to take photos and store as I feel fit not to be shared on the frigging cloud - and breath

I bought a phone with a camera for me to take photos and store as I feel fit not to be shared on the frigging cloud - and breath

But they're not being shared, they're just being backed up to the cloud. And you can switch that functionality off. I think that's a great bit of functionality.

I bought a phone with a camera for me to take photos and store as I feel fit not to be shared on the frigging cloud

So why didn't you turn off cloud sync then?

Nonsense. The only way to stop FB from spying on you is closing your account. They will keep all your previous data though 😉

not quite.

you need to quit using the internet, and also get every one you know to do the same.

FB don't only learn about you by you having an account. They learn about you from others (indeed data about you from others is deemed more reliable than that you provide), and by you visiting 3rd party sites where the 3rd party is happy for FB to learn about you.

Foil hat wouldn't go amiss too.

I did turn the cloud sync off - I have no idea where that one photo has even come from, I presume it sync'd from somewhere before I turned it off - I have never used a cloud based system before. To be honest I'd be quite happy to go back to dumb phone, laptop & camera all being separate. Grump mumble mumble

Foil hat wouldn't go amiss too.

Now I'm getting adverts for foil hats. Damn you!

adverts? 😉

AFAIK Facebook and Whatsapp aren't allowed to share data. I've certainly never had anything to suggest this is the case (mind you I wouldn't)

It's when Facebook starts crawling your Tinder history that things will get messy 😉

i always think people are just being a wee bit too self aggrandizing with this spying patter.

Honestly, nobody cares. All facebook want you do is click and avdert! 😆 There isn't another person at the end looking into you personally!

Personally, I prefer targeted ads instead of random ads. They can be quite helpful at times.

I posted a thread (and received much bile) about keeping pictures of children off facebook a year or two ago. My paranoia being that Facebook would eventually be able to predict what said children would look like and would already know huge amounts about them the second they registered an account, and with targeted advertising through mobile devices like google glass they would get precise targeted adverts from companies who had been sold vast amounts of data about them since birth.

I'm noticing an increasing trend for people to post their baby scans, never mind newborn pictures. It's only a matter of time before facebook knows more about us than our closest friends.

All facebook want you do is click an advert

And all I want is not to be pestered by adverts, none of which I'm going to click on.

And all I want is not to be pestered by adverts, none of which I'm going to click on.

buying a premier subscription on here might help that a little, Whitestone... 🙂

Rachel

One thing that genuinely creeped me out was that i changed my surname 20 years ago, so pre-Facebook and the internet being mainstream at all by deedpoll back to my mum's maiden name and i had never got on with my dad.

Somehow Facebook has sent me adverts with those Sweatshirts with my old surname on with "Team Greenhill" (my old surname) on?

How does it now what my previous surname was when i have never entered it anywhere on the internet to my knowledge?

no way

How does it now what my previous surname was when i have never entered it anywhere on the internet to my knowledge?

That seems very strange!

Any siblings still use your fathers name?

Are you connected to them in any way?

hat seems very strange!

Any siblings still use your fathers name?

Are you connected to them in any way?

Yep, thats what creeps me out, my mum, sister and i all decided to do it 20 years ago, i'd got engaged to a girl at Uni. and came to the conclusion that i didn't want to get married with fathers surname as we'd not seen him since i was 8-9 years old. My mu and sister decided to do the same, so neither has my old surname and we have no contact at all since that age with any of his family.

My mu and sister decided to do the same, so neither has my old surname and we have no contact at all since that age with any of his family.

You might not have contacted him (or any of them) but that doesn't mean they're not searching for you. The suggested contacts thing is two-way and feeds into everything else.

Adblock+, Ghostery and of course, FB Purity, to actually hide the stuff you don't want. This is on a proper computer rather than a phone though...

Facebook is irritating, the scary stuff is happening behind the scenes. That car insurance price or house insurance is based on your postcode. One of the big drivers is not how much car crime there is on that area but what individuals look like.

They've taken postcode, looked up Experian, FSS or acorn to work out what kind of income you have, what papers you read, approximate health info and your socio demographic. Oh and probably where you shop and typical products bought.

Because it's at 20-odd houses it's not "personal". But the price you get is how willing they are to do business with you and they'll price themselves to be uncompetitive. That's fine until they all start doing it and suddenly it's a fortune because the area round your audi are all alky gits who make lots of claims.

I'm breaking out the tin hat and paying cash for everything. Including my counselling...

If I even so much as look at anything on Ebay or Amazon I get bombarded with adverts on Facebook for similar items.

Just posted on the "Clean eating" thread and now have an advert for some "healthy food" website!

And all I want is not to be pestered by adverts, none of which I'm going to click on.
buying a premier subscription on here might help that a little, Whitestone...

Rachel

Something creeped me out recently....occasionally I use my phone's front facing camera as a mirror. Well, the other day I was squeezing a spot and making sure I was making a clean job of it. Shortly after as I was browsing the internet I had loads of adverts pop up for Clearasil products. How the hell my camera knew what I was doing was way above my head!

That car insurance price or house insurance is based on your postcode. One of the big drivers is not how much car crime there is on that area but what individuals look like.

Never heard of that.
Source ?

Don't get me wrong the incidence rates and vehicle are a large part of it, but so too is the individual. Big data is profiling individual based on factors mostly driven from postcode.

I don't work in car insurance but the techniques that are being touted round my industry are cited as having been successful in car/ house/pet insurance. The price certain individuals will tolerate differs so you don't need pare back prices, and for the ones that have greater propensity to claim - say high alcohol buying and high smoking rates indicating poorer socio economic profile - you increase prices beyond that individual's price point and acquire more profitable business.

It's a murky world and hard to establish the array of factors that are behind the decision making algorithms as data feeds have up to 1000 items that are profiled at each postcode. Clubcard, bank create an income stream by collecting and sharing depersonalised data of purchase histories.

The EU GDPR regulation is coming but because this is postcode data and not individual based data it falls outside the scope of the proposed directive.

Shortly after as I was browsing the internet I had loads of adverts pop up for Clearasil products. How the hell my camera knew what I was doing was way above my head!

Probably either analysis of recorded speech or, if you were using the "mirror mode" of your camera software then it might figured you were a candidate. The software might also record the movements with accelerometers and make a guess about what you were doing with the camera function.

The background audio analysis is getting quite creepy, every time you load a search page or use the google search app you're likely being recorded at the same time. When this ends is unclear. Additionally Google will use sounds previously recorded in the background; have a look into your phone's background data use figures..... it's around 15% data analysis traffic on a standard Android handset.

BTW Facebook is analysing all photos uploaded in near real-time as well.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/show-facebook-computer-vi/elafbihhbfmfihdflghclaclcilcnmie

Based on some experiments over the last few days they're using this to screen all images for "banned content" in realtime at upload. This image:
[img] [/img] cannot be uploaded. Adding gaussian blur and reducing the contrast will fool the filter....for now. The situation is similar with youtube blocking known banned content [see, eg, copyright-infringing content now [url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neTcxw8y2pY ]encoded with additional background imagery[/url] to bypass the current state of the filter]

FACE IT SUKKERS, ALL YOUR DATA IS BELONG TO US

[quote=squirrelking ]AFAIK Facebook and Whatsapp aren't allowed to share data. I've certainly never had anything to suggest this is the case (mind you I wouldn't)

Hmmm.

Last night I was having a WhatsApp conversation about Battlefield 1. Other than that conversation I didn't do anything on line related to the Battlefield 1

On my facebook feed this morning there's an advert for Battlefield 1 😕

toldja!

every time you load a search page or use the google search app you're likely being recorded at the same time. When this ends is unclear.

You can listen to the snippets it's recorded.

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2015/10/so-google-records-all-the-microphone-audio-all-the-time-after-all/

I did turn the cloud sync off - I have no idea where that one photo has even come from, I presume it sync'd from somewhere before I turned it off - I have never used a cloud based system before. To be honest I'd be quite happy to go back to dumb phone, laptop & camera all being separate. Grump mumble mumble

Two months later:

"Help, how do I retrieve all my photos from a broken phone?"

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2015/10/so-google-records-all-the-microphone-audio-all-the-time-after-all/

Speculation and conjecture are kinds of facts.

[img] [/img]

Last night I was having a WhatsApp conversation about Battlefield 1. Other than that conversation I didn't do anything on line related to the Battlefield 1

Are you sure?

http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/battlefield-1/page/3#post-8036116

[quote=Drac ]Last night I was having a WhatsApp conversation about Battlefield 1. Other than that conversation I didn't do anything on line related to the Battlefield 1
Are you sure?
> http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/battlefield-1/page/3#post-8036116
br />

3 months ago, not last night with the ad popping up today

You can listen to the snippets it's recorded.

Remind me to abuse this fact on my mate's machines when I visit and they haven't logged out... or alternatively record other snippets to pollute their google account history 😉

3 months ago, not last night with the ad popping up today

3 months ago, not last night with the ad popping up today

Battlefield is trending again as a new DLC has been announced, Facebook knows you've posted in a thread about in the past and the 2 provide an advert.

[quote=Drac ] 3 months ago, not last night with the ad popping up today
Battlefield is trending again as a new DLC has been announced, Facebook knows you've posted in a thread about in the past and the 2 provide an advert.

[img] [/img]

https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/02/facebooks-ai-unlocks-the-ability-to-search-photos-by-whats-in-them/

Nice. Can't possibly go wrong 😛

http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/uk_58e4bb44e4b0f4a923b391a6?ir=UK

- Facy_b now using instant image recognition tech to prevent revenge porn uploads.