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Comment by grannyg00se | Hacker News Reader

When you "like" something you are telling Facebook that you want your social network to know that you like that thing. Doesn't it make sense that Facebook would then go about telling people that you said you liked it? That's the whole point of clicking the like button.

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False, the meaning of the like button has historically changed over time. It had nothing to do with brands and advertising when it launched.

The fact that you indicated you like it and want to share that with your social network has not changed. If you "like" a brand, it has everything to do with brands and advertising. You just indicated that you like that brand. And by doing so you've told Facebook that you want that endorsement to be public. Just the same as if you were to "like" a blog post. You want everyone to know that you like it. Otherwise why would you be publicly announcing it on Facebook?

On FB, Likes and Friends are basically forced-public, even though there is an obvious use case for having these relationships private.

Wanting your friends and potential friends to know what movies you like is not remotely the same as wanting the world to see your face plastered on other companies' advertisements.

‘Like’ing something on FB is entirely different that endorsing a product for your friends, which is what the AD makes it appear.

Too many times I have searched something on Google and then later on in FB low and behold I see an ad whiz by on my timeline pertaining to what I searched earlier on Google.

Taking this to the extreme, if my teenage son searched for Condems on Google and then later see’s the AD on FB and clicks like, do I want the AD to appear with my sons pic endorsing this product?

Why the heck would your son press like on a condom ad?

It was an extreme example hopefully it wouldn’t happen, BUT if it did at least his G’ma, G’pa, aunts, uncles and cousins who are friends with him would at least know his choice of condoms.

Which would inevitably lead to the call from them to me letting me know what my son is up to which then leads me to explain a bunch of non transparent FB rules to non technical people.

Perhaps because it had a funny video or animation, or because he could win an iPad by 'liking' it. These techniques are in widespread use in Facebook advertising, and frequently targets younger people.

"‘Like’ing something on FB is entirely different that endorsing a product for your friends, "

How? What is it to publicly announce that you like something? That's an endorsement. Why else would you be "liking" something on FB? To privately remind yourself that you like it?

Yes, that is reqsonaw behavior -- to customize the ads FB shows me.

They're not showing "Kevin likes Acme Inc," they are showing "Kevin likes Acme Inc and Acme has a discount on widgets this week."

Perfect. Kevin gets to publicly announce that he likes something, and for anybody who is listening, they're also notified that the product happens to be on sale. I don't see how Kevin has been slighted just because his willful endorsement of a product went hand in hand with a notification that the product is on sale.

The UI tries very hard to give the false impression that the Liker Likes the ad, not the brand actually Liked.

Yeah, I guess "Kevin likes Acme Inc's discount this week" is more accurate.

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