Do Facebook & Google SHARE your data?
I was quite surprised/concerned twhen I logged into Facebook today at one of the Ads displayed to me.
Why was I surprised/concerned?
Well let’s set the scene.
Like a lot of households, we have a home network with several devices connected to the internet through a WIFI modem/router.
Now, I am a Facebook user which I use for both personal and business purposes
My beautiful wife Wendy DOES NOT use Facebook at all.
Yesterday. Wendy was looking to glam up a piece of old furniture and she was looking at a very specific paint brand on google using her tablet and showing me what she had found. So far so good.
Why should I worry?
Well when I logged in to Facebook today, one of the first Ads that was displayed was not only for that very specific paint brand but (coincidentally or not) also the exact items within that brand that we looked at.
Now my issue is that, I did not search for those items & the device I use has NEVER searched for that brand so there is no cached search history etc to be gleaned from MY searches or MY computer.
The product in question is not even made on the same continent so it not even geolocation based advertising. I can only deduce that Facebook & Google are sharing data collected from specific IPs (or the modem router itself).
Doesn’t seem to worrying does it! After all, all that data collection & sharing is to make your experience better
This has happened before and I have put it off as coincidental. But when the Ads become that specific it is no coincidence!
Well this is really frightening!
I don’t have a problem seeing ads about topics I’ve searched for but I DO NOT want others in the household seeing ads related to MY searches.
What if I was searching for a present for my wife or planning a surprise holiday for her or looking at things that she would not like me looking at (I leave that to your imagination).
What if ads show up in your Facebook account based on what your parents, siblings, kids are searching online for.
Some would say that is a good thing, but I DO NOT.
I don’t like it and I am wondering how/where/when the data sharing is occurring.
What do you think?
Memories!
Years ago, like many of us, I used to get zillions of emails from porn sites etc asking me where I’ve been, or saying they’re missing me or thanking me for contacting someone or thanking me for joining their site even though I did not have any link to them at all.
All fake of course but in the early days of the internet (before any SPAM acts were around), I found myself on the defensive finding myself having to “proove” that I wasn’t involved.
