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Comment by p49k | Hacker News Reader

These advertisers are running ads using a contact list they or their partner uploaded that includes info about you. This info was collected by the advertiser or their partner. Typically this information is your email address or phone number.

I like how they purposely give a couple examples, omitting the targeting factors that are more likely to freak people out, such as targeting by lists of names and dates of birth

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On top of that, it's absurd that someone can add my phone number to their advertising platform to get my name. Unlike email addresses, phone numbers are rather finite, and the number itself is tied to a particular geographical area (for the most part).

On a related note, Facebook makes it so difficult to unlike things, unfriend people, and opt-out of information from individual advertisers. It's obviously hostile design aimed at making it as hard as possible to reduce your advertising value to them.

What Facebook is doing might not be illegal, but I think what they are doing is more unethical than many felonies. The people in charge of these decisions are getting wealthy from them, and they are never going to face consequences for their actions, which is a real shame.

Do they get your name? Still I hate it when all sites ask for phone to confirm my account and then use it to target me.

I use different e-mail for FB and everyday use, yet still there are a lot of companies that target me

This works as contact matching: they provide list of contacts and FB show to those people ads, so advertiser will not gain access to your personal data.

> On top of that, it's absurd that someone can add my phone number to their advertising platform to get my name.

Advertisers don't get any information about you from Facebook ads unless you click on an ad and tell them it yourself.

That's why I never signed up for FB's 2FA program, and give out random fake phone numbers elsewhere, like grocery stores. I'm sure (987) 654-3210 will save you 10% on your tomatoes.

Name and birth date is nothing. The freaky shit is that Acxiom tracks women's menstrual cycles. Advertisers tailor their campaigns depending on what will be best received at any given time in the cycle.

I tried googling for this but turned up short. Do you have a source for this?

I sat in a meeting where this was explained to me. This was before Google existed.

> such as targeting by lists of names and dates of birth

Typically you wouldn't be able to do this.

I don't think you can target people by names or dates of birth at Facebook. IIRC targeting by name (even indirectly) is prohibited by Facebook.

Lots of things are "prohibited" by Facebook, but slimy ad companies and middlemen do them all the time.

Unless they're Facebook "partners," which means more access, but nobody really knows how far that goes because it's all private.

really? that's interesting, because I'm literally running an experiment right now since this whole 'Facebook shows you who's targeting you' thing started.

Facebook explicitly has my name, my "second" birthday (I love all my birthdays equally, especially the ones I give to marketing sites) and a special email address I have literally created only to give to Facebook for my account. The rest of my account info is deliberately empty and I've deliberately locked down as much privacy settings as I can, don't use the site from my phone (Honestly I barely use the site at all) and have opted out of everything I can.

Advertisers are still showing up (one of them is a liquor store even though I'm a teetotaler and I have selected not to be shown alcohol ads, but what can you do?)

either way, something rather fishy is going on.

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