Facebook Creeps Me Out

So I am playing around on face book looking at the terms and conditions of the community page set up for fun. (Yeah, I am a total nerd).

I noticed and advertizement for logging in with facebook on other websites. The example it gave was the Huffington post. Ironically enough, I get their e-mails but I have never signed in to that website using facebook.... check out the advertizement.

I was not signed into facebook.




Am I the only one that finds that weird?

reply to post by nottheonlyone


Are those your friends IRL?

reply to post by nottheonlyone


Its probably just spam. And any socially networked site, and huff post is that, or was in its infancy, links to facebook to get more visitors. I know people who only read facebook all day. Now to me only reading Facebook all day is creepy. But what sites have to do to get noticed nowadays is put up a Facebook page. I gues it makes going viral on youtube obsolete.

Advertising nowadays uses your general location (determined by your IP address) to give you relevant local advertisements. Like if you were to type "restaurant" into google search, the auto-complete would fill in the rest with the name of the city that your ISP is located in. It also uses things you've searched in the past to provide relevant advertisements.

reply to post by HarmonicNights


No, but I just found out that Google is the sneeky software behind this hack of this information. I am signed into Yahoo... That is still a bit disturbing.

Never mind.

Kind of like how the advertisements you see on the right side of your page are specifically talored to you. For example I always have forex ads(foreign exchange market) because I daytrade currencies,

It does look as though facebook is attempting to take over the net. I guess it's not that hard when you have the full backing of the government, and multinational corporation.

I find it creepy the people who always post exactly where they are and what they are doing at all times. Of course I think it's even more creepy that people actually sit there and read all these status updates. What's the point? Facebook has to be a stalker's dream come true.

I agree that face book is a creepy thing. It is clearly a social monitoring tool that we have been subjected to and bought hook line and sinker.

I personally am not even on facebook but apparently because i have friends that are and they have pictures of me on there i am now part of some facial recognition program now as well. that is crazy! i think it is pure BS that i do not even have to have a registered account with this website and still they are finding ways to monitor me.

I love the internet and its vast supply of information, but sometimes it scares me how fast its evolving before my eyes.

reply to post by nottheonlyone


too have noticed that FB and many other huge sites have had a slowly creeping interface occur over the months. all too often now there are links for me to 'thumbs up' an article to FB, or i see my Hotmail addy on screen and i have no idea why.

not long ago i was forced to sign into YouTube using my Gmail Acct addy. more creeping, more massive interfacing. i realize its probably 'their' way of logging more info to sell to marketing lists and the like. but it is creepy. i'm well aware there is no privacy on the 'Net but i don't need them reminding me of it.

Lord knows where i've wound up from joining ATS. thankfully i'm just another nobody without a life

reply to post by nottheonlyone


Oh you mean it's creepy that they're advertising the Huffington Post, the sight you go to? I've noticed things like that happen to me. Not long ago, I was looking up swimming pools and then on other websites that have nothing to do with pools, there were ads on the sides for swimming pools. It creeps me out too.

reply to post by TheInterceptor


Right! it is like you cannot escape it. They have your face they have your name even if you do not sign up for an account. Then they can do whatever they want with it because the privacy policy is a load of you know what.

reply to post by nottheonlyone


Onion news says it best. I dont know how to imbed video yet. i am still new to posting. Here is the link.

www.theonion.com...

reply to post by LargeFries

not long ago i was forced to sign into YouTube using my Gmail Acct addy

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That was the day I stopped signing into youtube. I've always been creeped out by the user agreement in gmail now that you've brought it up.

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I've never signed into facebook or twitter or any other site of that caliber but even I have noticed it's dominance on the internet. I simply can't fathom why people think putting all their personal information in one place is a good thing. What really freaks me out is that people know that fb tracks you and still willingly give their information out. It's like a corporate state americans dream come true.

reply to post by LargeFries


That is exactly what I meant! It creeps me out. I'm sure I agreed to a terms and conditions e-mail when I signed up for my Yahoo account 10 years ago but.... I never printed it. I'm sure it did not include information about sharing data with other companies. Even if it did how would I prove that the advertizement is not random?

It is possible for sites to keep track of the internet sites you surf, via tracking cookies. I forget all the details, but you can get software to scan for these, or you can just disable cookies in your browser.

There may be other ways, I just don't know ... but you may want to look into it.

I wouldn't just consider it coincidence.

Here ya go:

www.ehow.com...

"Another type, known as a tracking or third-party cookie, lets advertisers track the websites you visit in order to send you personalized advertisements. Unlike other forms of spyware, tracking cookies tend to be harmless and do not record your name, credit card information or other personal information"

So, no, the advertisements probably weren't random.

Facebook creeps me out too.

It knew my favourite beer a few years ago. I also believe it was proving a point to me by showing me. There's a few other examples like this that bothered me. It wasn't a local beer and I don't have a bank card.

There's an ad that used to show up with my own face in it to "target me." I'd shown people this ad when people were around. They agreed it was me in the ad.

But today it really pissed me off. It does this occasionally.

First thing I saw when logging on was an ad apparently sponsored by "BP America" telling me the Gulf of Mexico was a great place to vacation and it was all cleaned up now. This ad had more than 60000 likes. Even if someone was taking the piss and making a joke ad, this shouldn't make it to my facebook. Come swim in corexit and wait for an earthquake! vacation woo!

Around the same time I heard on CNN that facebook has introduced facial recognition software to help tag more photos. There are 100 000 000 facebook photo tags a day so now it automatically recognizes your face in newly posted photos and users only have to confirm that that faces are right. You must opt out of this feature and there was no notification of it being introduced. Why is facial recognition software being forced on us through facebook and where is this going?

Reply to post by TheInterceptor

Was just about to make a post on facebook's new face recognition system...facebook is definitely a social monitoring system, as Mr Zuckerberg is now involved in world politics (money is power). Only recently he was havin dinner with the president & other financial power houses..
Sorry I switched to mobile, so can't post the links about his dinner with Obama, the new fb face recognition & about how zuckerberg has met with several leaders of the free world & discussed the pychological analysis & movements behind the guinea pigs (including me) on facebook...But if you look hard enough, you will find out.



Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

reply to post by EthanT


I will guarentee that there are no cookies from the huffington post website located on this computer. I get their e-mails but I have not visited the page in ages. This computer has had several formats since the last time I visited their website.

I was signed into Yahoo and on the facebook page, but I was not signed into my facebook. Basically facebook was sending me an advertizement it thought would appeal to me using information from my e-mail account. That or it was a crazy random coincidence.

Huffington post is not local to me.

I can recall reading an e-mail on my ipod from the huffington post about a month ago, I may have clicked a link to their website but I was not using my ipod just then - as you can clearly see from the pic.

Keep in mind they have algorithms to determine what to advertise to you. If you visited sites similar to Huffington post, it could get thrown in somewhere along the lines.

It's not just about the specific sites you went too, but rather the types of sites you went too.

Like I said, tracking cookies may not be the only way to "record" this info. Look into spyware.

If this happens enough to NOT seem like a coincidence .. it probably isn't.

EDIT: btw, facebook also keys off any profile info you put in, and your activity on facebook, to try and give you personal advertisements along those lines as well.