Facebook knows what you purchase!?

[Sam48]

I recently bought a T-shirt made by Adidas (With one of those nice big Adidas logos on the front). Only two days after that purchase, the adverts on the side of my facebook page went crazy with Adidas ads. To add to that, none of what I "Like 👍" on facebook even reflects anything Adidas oriented (Most of what I like is related to local businesses or racetracks).

Has anyone else ever had this happen to them?

 

[Omnis]

This wouldn't be surprising. Amazon keeps track of everything you look at or buy, for example.

 

[Racedude]

I think it's just a coincidence. If not, we're :censored:ed, really :censored:ed.

 

[Syntax error]

They would be able to track what site you looked at prior to heading to Facebook. For example, you might have been on the adidas website and then clicked on Fb in say your bookmarks. I know my websites analytics supplies me with this type of information. Sometimes it can be very disturbing information

 

[Skython]

They would be able to track what site you looked at prior to heading to Facebook. For example, you might have been on the adidas website and then clicked on Fb in say your bookmarks. I know my websites analytics supplies me with this type of information. Sometimes it can be very disturbing information

I've always thought it did that as well, though I have no secret sites that no one knows I use, so I'm fine. Just hope it doesn't some day reveal everything because they'll be a lot of creepy desperate people complaining that fb said about their list of dating and porn sites

 

[GilesGuthrie]

It's not generally Facebook that knows, it's the ad broker. Usually Google. They're setting cookies based on their own sites, so when you go from site to site, the ads are still served from the same site that's tracking your movements.

 

[Sam48]

It's not generally Facebook that knows, it's the ad broker. Usually Google. They're setting cookies based on their own sites, so when you go from site to site, the ads are still served from the same site that's tracking your movements.

That may be, but, believe it or not, I've never gone to Adidas.com before. Add to that the fact that other "related" ads starting appearing as well.

So, today, I'm planning to test this all again. I'm in need of some new soccer shorts before the season starts. I'll be sure to not buy them from Adidas, and instead another major sports brand. Then I'll see what happens on FB.

 

[daan]

Facebook knows what you purchase!?

Let me fix that for you. Cookies know what you have looked at and adverts are designed to show the same, or similar, items.

And that's not really news.

 

[Jordan]

They would be able to track what site you looked at prior to heading to Facebook. For example, you might have been on the adidas website and then clicked on Fb in say your bookmarks. I know my websites analytics supplies me with this type of information. Sometimes it can be very disturbing information

Note that referral information is only passed to a site when a user visits it after clicking a link from another site. Accessing a site from your bookmarks is no different than typing one into your address bar, and no information about the previous page you were on is passed to the new site you're loading. For example, Facebook could "see" that you just came from GTPlanet if you clicked on this link, but if you clicked on a link in your bookmarks, there would be no referral information passed to them.

How/where did you buy that t-shirt, Sam? Have you mentioned Adidas in any of your comments or status updates, recently?

 

[Omnis]

It could just be reading your Flash cookies (LSOs) and giving you advertisements based on where it knows you've been. There are programs that can dump your Local Shared Objects for you.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I changed my FB relationship status to Married, from single, one refresh later, and all the dating site ad's were replaced by money lending adverts.. .. quite insightful I thought!

edit: I'm also pretty sure FB scans your status updates for keywords.. I noticed my ad's changed to something completely random, and when I looked back it was because of something I'd mentioned in my status... out of context I'd used a word that happened to be a product, I forget what it was.

 

[Sam48]

How/where did you buy that t-shirt, Sam? Have you mentioned Adidas in any of your comments or status updates, recently?

I bought it at an Olympia Sports store. I also used one of those store discount/points racker upper tags you keep on your key-chain. And no, I actually update my Facebook maybe twice a month at best. And I've never mentioned anything regarding Adidas, let alone anything sports related.

Do you think Facebook may recognize what you're wearing in, say, you profile picture? Or any other pictures you may be tagged in???

 

[Syntax error]

Note that referral information is only passed to a site when a user visits it after clicking a link from another site. Accessing a site from your bookmarks is no different than typing one into your address bar, and no information about the previous page you were on is passed to the new site you're loading. For example, Facebook could "see" that you just came from GTPlanet if you clicked on this link, but if you clicked on a link in your bookmarks, there would be no referral information passed to them.

In that case my website might be linked on some odd places

My analytics has a portion headed Connect to site from Direct address / Bookmark / Link in email... It gives me a very long list of websites that traffic comes from each month. Some I'm aware of that have existing links such as Facebook, flickr or motorsport sites I've worked for but majority of the other traffic is listed to originate from all sorts of random sites. I don't pay for any advertising either. I profess I have little knowledge about how it all actually works, however my interest is now piqued as to what exactly this data is....

 

[Jordan]

I bought it at an Olympia Sports store. I also used one of those store discount/points racker upper tags you keep on your key-chain. And no, I actually update my Facebook maybe twice a month at best. And I've never mentioned anything regarding Adidas, let alone anything sports related.

Do you think Facebook may recognize what you're wearing in, say, you profile picture? Or any other pictures you may be tagged in???

Weird. Here's all the ways advertisers can target Facebook users, so there must be something that's tipped them off to your purchase. Image recognition is a really interesting idea, though I think it would be pretty big news if Facebook actually found a way to implement that at their scale.

In that case my website might be linked on some odd places

My analytics has a portion headed Connect to site from Direct address / Bookmark / Link in email... It gives me a very long list of websites that traffic comes from each month. Some I'm aware of that have existing links such as Facebook, flickr or motorsport sites I've worked for but majority of the other traffic is listed to originate from all sorts of random sites. I don't pay for any advertising either. I profess I have little knowledge about how it all actually works, however my interest is now piqued as to what exactly this data is....

You're using AWStats? The Direct Address / Bookmark / Link in email... section is actually a line item of its own, separate from the sites that are sending referral information. Since AWStats is generating its reports from your raw server logs, it shows requests to all of the files (including images) on your website, not just the pages themselves. When one of your images embedded on another web page is requested, the browser will send along the address of the page that is requesting it to your server. This "referring" page will show up in AWStats, though it doesn't contain an actual hyperlink to one of your pages. This is known as "hot linking".

For more accurate statistics about who's really visiting the pages of your site (and where they're really coming from), use a JavaScript-based analytics service such as SiteMeter or Google Analytics.

 

[Syntax error]

Weird. Here's all the ways advertisers can target Facebook users, so there must be something that's tipped them off to your purchase. Image recognition is a really interesting idea, though I think it would be pretty big news if Facebook actually found a way to implement that at their scale.


You're using AWStats? The Direct Address / Bookmark / Link in email... section is actually a line item of its own, separate from the sites that are sending referral information. Since AWStats is generating its reports from your raw server logs, it shows requests to all of the files (including images) on your website, not just the pages themselves. When one of your images embedded on another web page is requested, the browser will send along the address of the page that is requesting it to your server. This "referring" page will show up in AWStats, though it doesn't contain an actual hyperlink to one of your pages. This is known as "hot linking".

For more accurate statistics about who's really visiting the pages of your site (and where they're really coming from), use a JavaScript-based analytics service such as SiteMeter or Google Analytics.

Thanks Jordan, that makes more sense to me now. I am indeed using AWStats. Thanks for the links, I'll check out analytics you've recommended.

I think I've mucked up something with my hotlink protection as it shows on my control panel as activated. I'll do a bit more research.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Let me fix that for you. Cookies know what you have looked at and adverts are designed to show the same, or similar, items.

And that's not really news.

As a matter of principle I never agree with daan... but this time he's absolutely right.

Ad providers collect detailed information about your online activities with regards to product, and it's not based on one PC either.

A few weeks ago I looked at greenhouses for my father-in-law on his own PC, now I get millions* of gardening adverts in the broker spaces - wherever I use my own login IDs. Scary stuff!


*ish