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I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook gets to access to data about who purchases what and when

The upside would be that you at least wouldn't keep seeing ads for things that you just purchased, as Facebook would know that you already have them.

Kind of a crappy silver lining, I know.

I wouldn't be so sure, I am positive Amazon still bombards me with Kindle Ads despite owning a couple already :)

It has always struck me as odd that Amazon shows me ads for things I had searched for and didn't buy as though I didn't already know about those products. Seems they should perhaps show me what other people bought that searched for similar or the same products as myself.

There was some talk of this on HN a while back, where the marketing theory presented was that there is a noticeable increase in sales if the customer walks away from a sale but is then later reminded of the product they almost bought.

From my experience with retargeting it drives amazing lift in conversions. A lot of platforms allow you to do this dynamic ad placing where you show the recently added item in a cart, but not purchased.

Also, let's not forget that Amazon is obsessed with testing, I am sure they have troves of it to back up everything they are doing.

I walk away from purchases plenty of times not because I don't want to buy the thing I searched for, but because something more pressing comes up.

Reminding me about the thing I was about to buy is very likely to get me to buy it in those cases.

Sounds like the ads are super effective then.

I wouldn't bet on it. Amazon knows exactly what I just bought and still shows me 100 different variations on it "recommended" for me.

I've often wondered why they do this. I see more variations of items I just purchased rather than accompanying/related items.

it works for a lot of cases, e.g. buy a book and get other books recommended, not so well for rarer purchases like laptops or phones.

I still get recommendations for the same book I just bought, but in different editions/formats. Seems like it could be improved some more.

But be careful of the 'Perfect Partner / frequently bought with...' recommendations, which Amazon themselves disavow as being in any way compatible:

If two items listed as Perfect Partner / Frequently Bought Together are not compatible, Amazon.co.uk are unable to accept the return of either item for this reason.

That's because it is just doing item-based collaborative filtering, right? It works beautifully other times. I bought chopsticks once and it showed me not more chopsticks, but other accessories for sushi, etc.

It drives me nuts when I log in to Amazon and it keeps showing me all these parts for building a new PC.

Damnit Amazon I just built one! How many processors do you think a single gaming PC can fit?!

Right?! God dammit Amazon, I just bought a crock pot! You know that! Why do you still serve me ads about crock pots!? The whole point of the surveillance state is to make use of all that info you have on me - frankly, it's insulting. I demand a better big brother!

And so Facebook encroaches upon the physical world to anchor itself

Not sure if you intended to sound so pessimistic but surely that's only a good thing? From a business perspective, this is an incredibly clever service. From a users perspective, this is an incredibly useful service.

Everyone seems to forget that Facebook users are not the consumer, they are the product being sold. If, by using this service, Facebook delivers me alarmingly specific adverts, then so be it. I've yet to be hurt by looking at an advert.

Oh, most definitely is it a good thing. Their initial foray into consumer products -- the HTC First -- was an absolute disaster. Strategically speaking I would not at all be surprised that this quells the fears surrounding Facebook's future, especially if it gains traction.

We're witnessing the end of anonymous free wifi, and nobody is better equipped for identifying users than Facebook.

Some people legitimately can be though. I take that statement as an axiom.

Unfortunately looking isn't all that's going on. The advertiser can collect data about web browsing habits which I like to keep private. And some ads can actually hurt you: http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/05/tech/yahoo-malware-attack/

Getting served data from someone you didn't choose to send you data is never a good thing.

Agreed, it's good for business. Increase your Facebook likes by having Facebook WiFi available to your customers, and therefore, get more traffic through the door as Facebook recommends your business to their friends.

Also, you should be able to get some kind of analytic data back from Facebook. They should be able to show you that 75% of your WiFi users are female, 18-35, or that your customers change based on time, or day of the week. Therefore, if you know younger people drink more cappuccinos, and they come in more often at noon, you can put that drink front and center. Sure, you could do this without Facebook, but it's logging who's in your store for you, so no extra work on your part.

This is even better for Facebook. Oh look, John likes to login to this coffee place, maybe we can recommend coffee ads to him. Or, more importantly, why don't we allow competing coffee shops to bid on customers using their main competitor? Think about that. There's a Starbucks across the street from your cafe. If you can advertise directly to people that use that Starbucks, that's a dream, and you'd pay a premium.

Or hey, Steve (male, 35, employed, based on his Facebook profile) was just hanging out in this Honda dealership. Ford, interested in advertising your latest offers to him?

So yes, this is great for business. I don't think it's that great for consumers. You might get more WiFi hotspots, which is a plus, but you're giving up your privacy to use them. Also, if you prefer not to use Facebook, you might lose access to WiFi at your favorite locations.

> From a users perspective, this is an incredibly useful service.

No, no it is not. I am a wifi user, and this is not useful to me in the slightest.

What, google is now the standard of privacy? Its OK because Google do it or something similar.

Yeah, beginning to want off this planet.

Just on LTE-enabled cars? Think bigger! They're running a full fiber optic service; they have every packet coming into and out of your house.

I, for one, welcome our gigabit overlords if only for the fact that they have Comcast, Cox, Time Warner, etc shaking in their boots.

I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook gets to access to data about who purchases what and when

I would sell all my transaction history for $5/month. Why should I care if their ads are getting better when I never pay attention to ads?

I never pay attention to ads

Just about everyone thinks this. But you're wrong. It's pretty much impossible not to be affected by advertising. Sure, you don't click on the links, but the product placement and brand awareness is not something that you can turn off!

Ok... so now I'm affected by ads that are actually relevant to my life... not sure how this is a bad thing.

Unless Flash / ads disabled ... ?

You're not just selling your own transaction history, though--you are selling the other half of it as well.

If I'm a private business or individual, I would prefer my customers not broadcast their affiliation--because some third-party source of data could be used to drive solicitation, or target advertising, or just in general be a nuisance.

Remember, when you give up transaction history, you aren't just ratting on yourself--you're ratting on whomever you've done business with.

you don't understand how ads work, do you ? educate yourself about neuromarketing and read this 1920's book by Freud's nephew Edward Bernays.

Also you don't understand how profiling works, do you ? A visible effect is ads, but it's not the only one and there are invisible effects. See NSA, crackers and http://online.wsj.com/public/page/what-they-know-digital-pri...

> And so Facebook encroaches upon the physical world to anchor itself

Reminded me of this limited edition like counter, called Fliike.

http://www.smiirl.com/

Is this a bad typo, or do I just not understand something:

> 2. Connect your _Fliike_ to the “Smiirl” Wi-Fi network and open your browser on any page. Set up your Wi-Fi network and password.

(emphasis added). They should s/Fliike/device/ or s/Fliike/laptop/ for this to make any sense.

> what does Facebook use? Is it proprietary?

On maps on Facebook, the small text says "(C) Microsoft (C) Nokia".

Doesn't Facebook use bing for translation and maps?

Given the Microsoft investment in Facebook, this seems likely

I received a document in a message from a friend and it opened in Microsoft Office's cloud. They seem to have a lot of Microsoft integration.

AFAIR it does use Bing for translation, I'm pretety sure that I saw the "translation provided by Bing" note after translating a Facebook comment the other day.

They use bing.

"Honda could use this information and market the Civic as "the best" car for eating at McDonald's."

There might be a horror scenario in there somewhere, but this isn't it :-)