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Facebook, social engineering and advertising

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RudyGarmisch
Posts: 25443 - Karma: 13,844
What the hell.

For the past 4 days, I've seen this same scandalously clad girl on my Facebook Recommended Friends List. I thought little of it till I heard a NPR story, which led me to do a little background check of my own.

This person doesnt exist. Its a fabrication, made by data miners who are out there to get your personal information to sell, for profit, to corporations, who pay out the ass to know what trends you are into. Weird. Really Weird, capital W. "Oh whatever, its random" you think... but its kind of not.

Facebook has disclosed some strange knowledge of how they run their site. Summarizing the NPR story I heard, say a woman hasnt posted much to Facebook recently. Facebook will actually post data feed showing her friends who have posted photos of trips, outings, whatever, with the intent on encouraging her to post photos herself. After a girl posts photo's, Facebook will make these pop up when male friends log in, hoping that a guy might take interest and comment, perhaps sparking interest and getting the girl to become more involved with Facebook in order to keep up on the guys.

But it doesnt stop there. Reverse engineering is apparently common, so if a guy hasn't been attending Facebook as often as he normally has, guess who's photos tend to pop up more often on his feeds... you guessed it.

I kind of dont know how to feel about this, since this is all "opt in" sorta deal, and we all openly volunteer this to this company, but it is weird to think that this can and does apparently go on. I hope this isnt too deep for NSG, but thoughts?
May 26 2011 3:26AM
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eheath
Posts: 61603 - Karma: 123,069
So you didn't know that facebook sells all of your personal info?
May 26 2011 3:29AM
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RudyGarmisch
Posts: 25443 - Karma: 13,844
Oh fuck no, I completely assume that everything I type is disseminated freely/for-profit. I just find the social engineering aspect a little... strange. Are my friends that I keep up with on Facebook there because I talk to them and find their interests alike to mine, or is Facebook controlling who I see show up in my news feed?
May 26 2011 3:33AM
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Scott0_robot0
Posts: 3291 - Karma: 212
iv kinda noticed this, not this exactly but just how weird facebook acts sometimes. anyone down to burn facebook with holy fire.
May 26 2011 3:41AM
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--ski--
Posts: 1670 - Karma: 817
I work in computer security and hate facebook and it's so called 'privacy'

That's why I don't have facebook.
May 26 2011 3:55AM
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Lemuel
Posts: 14488 - Karma: 10,641
That must be what mine is, because the only things on my feed thingy are from people that I talk to alot, then sometimes a random one from that person you never talked to in high school.
May 26 2011 9:37AM
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Tasche
Posts: 5422 - Karma: 99
That is pretty interesting but not shocking.

It is weird to have this new form of communication come about in our lifetimes.

Pretty soon people will realize one simple truth. If you don't feel comfortable sharing a piece of information with every person in the world, then do not post it on facebook or anywhere on the internet.
May 26 2011 9:40AM
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1337
Posts: 31054 - Karma: 29,234
well my newsfeed sucks, so facebook, you're doing it wrong
May 26 2011 9:49AM
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hanksy
Posts: 659 - Karma: 265
Thats pretty wild stuff. I've been meaning to do a 'clean-up' of my facebook one of these days. I have never given a shit about privacy at all but now I think I should.
May 26 2011 10:06AM
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WikiWiki
Posts: 5584 - Karma: 426
true- I hate people that take facebook real serious and post serious shit- usually I post stupid car shit, ski shit, and maybe an idea of what im doing that week

that and most of my friends on there I actually talk to regularly and the rest are all car and ski related


May 26 2011 10:12AM
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Mr.Huck
Posts: 6096 - Karma: 14,896
I'm torn on this right now. I have friends who refuse to set up facebook. I know that it keeps track of your activity and the ads that you see are catered to what they've identified as your interests.

I guess the customized commercialism doesn't really bother me, because I'd rather get bombarded with ads for stuff I am interested in, versus ads for feminine hygiene products. The subtle, or not so subtle peer pressuring that facebook artificially generates to make people more active on FB, doesn't upset me that much either. Usually when it says write on someone's wall, you realize that you haven't heard from them for awhile. I have gotten a few of those friend requests from chics who look like stripper wannabes, and I just ignore them.

What pisses me off the most about facebook is the illusion it creates that you are really connected with these people just because you post on their walls sometimes, check out their photos are comment on their status.

Last year my roommate from college freshman year drank himself to death in his basement. We both were from Vail and knew each other from high school. We were friends on facebook. I never knew that anything was wrong until after the funeral service. He was laying in a hospital bed, in a coma about a mile away from my home and I had no idea.
May 26 2011 10:44AM
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RubberSoul
Posts: 11249 - Karma: 14,642
elaborate please?
May 26 2011 10:47AM
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RubberSoul
Posts: 11249 - Karma: 14,642
elaborate please?
May 26 2011 10:47AM
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RubberSoul
Posts: 11249 - Karma: 14,642

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May 26 2011 10:52AM
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Mr.Huck
Posts: 6096 - Karma: 14,896
Thanks and sorry to hear about your friend. It's feels pretty strange when you checkout the facebook page of a friend who has died.

I'm sure in my friend Joey's case I missed some posts that would have shown up on my home page. Facebook gives you the false sense about knowing everything that's going on in your friend's lives. We naturally are going to always post cool stuff that makes it look like we are all living the dream. Someone could be suicidal but their Facebook page makes it look like life is one big party.
May 26 2011 12:05PM
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H8CH
Posts: 2709 - Karma: 218

of course Facebook isn't random....

Facebook is totally "engineered"....  it's basically the biggest single advertising tool on the web (in the world?).

Think of it like this - Grocery's in the supermarket are not stacked randomly on the shelves - it's very cleverly arranged so that certain items are at eye level, and color co-ordinated etc etc....   designed to sell based on the information collected by every checkout in the store, in the country....   everything feed's a huge data base, that uses empirical model's to improve / control sales and marketing campaigns - they can sell these campaigns to the product manufacturer for large sums.

Facebook will employ similar models in exactly the way's you detailed in the OP - and of course, probably much more intricate data control techniques too.  They own so much information about general populations and global trends it's scary....  and of course - highly highly valuable....   Facebook is a business at the end of the day - what does it sell? You and me....  

May 26 2011 12:14PM
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GILLSKI
Posts: 1250 - Karma: 361
havnt had a facebook in about a year now... i was sick of seeing people I didnt wanna see living through a facebook page making it look like they were the best person on the planet... I was told by a therapist to do this cause im honestly insane and ever since I took myself off facebook theres a little less stress in me.  totally irrelevant but whatever
May 26 2011 12:34PM
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Mt_Baker_Man
Posts: 2012 - Karma: 105
Don't touch GILLSKI!!! You could catch what hes got!!!

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May 31 2011 5:17AM
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