We have been looking at buying a new kitchen table and on the weekend we looked in a few shops but never settled on anything. I'm now getting tailored adverts online for kitchen tables and furniture. I haven't once looked online for any of this stuff!
How do they know??
UPS. Spent an hour on their website trying to figure out how to leave my delivery driver a note saying to leave a parcel around the back. Didn't even manage to in the end, so missed delivery. Grr.
UPS are ****. I've been using them a bit lately for sending documents to Slovenia. Arranging shipping is OK now, but it was a total pain in the arse at first because the website is rubbish. It also seems to be hit and miss whether they'll pick up or not.
I use them all the time, but via parcel2go. So much easier.
The being a student once tax , i often wonder how we went from a system where uni places where free and you got a student grant to a system where you pay stupid amounts to go to uni and you have to take out loans that just about cover your rent/halls of residence.
it's just way that the older generation is screwing over the younger one, Brexit, house prices/mortgages, wages, the list goes on and on.
We have been looking at buying a new kitchen table and on the weekend we looked in a few shops but never settled on anything. I'm now getting tailored adverts online for kitchen tables and furniture. I haven't once looked online for any of this stuff!
How do they know??
Location, location, location.
That's certainly part of it, but there's definitely something else going on. For example, my wife picked a load of apples up from the garden the other day, as a load had fallen while we were away. She didn't have her phone on her (not that her location would show specifically as the garden, and obviously there's no way of knowing there's an apple tree in it), but the next day - last night in fact - she got an ad served up on Facebook for an apple collecting device, which is basically some kind of round cage on a stick which you can roll around the garden to pick up fallen fruit. Didn't even know you could find such a thing. Anyway, it's not like picking up apples is a problem for us or even something we have to spend any more than a few minutes doing each year. She'd collected them in a bag and we'd talked about what we should do with them, but that's it. If Facebook's not listening in constantly in the background, I'll eat my phone.
If Facebook's not listening in constantly in the background, I'll eat my phone.
It isn't that, or at least, not in this case. It's just to do with profiling.
They know enough about your wife to predict that she's going to be doing that.
It seems a bit more spooky than it is because most of the time, they get it wrong. In an average day, you probably see hundreds of targeted ads; you only really remember the ones that strike a chord like this.
Still, it's because other people like your wife will have posted about doing that this week, or related activities.
I doubt that they are, but I'm never able to convince anyone of it. It seems to be commonplace to believe it now. The fact of the matter is that if they were, it would be such a huge project to track and analyse the endless recording of 1bn+ users that it would definitely leak at some point.
The reality is scarier than secret audio recordings. Facebook's analysis both of data that they personally collect and data they purchase from third parties is so sophisticated and multifarious that they don't need to record you. It's that accurate. What's more, people don't realise just how much is being collected about them daily as they navigate the web, then sent back to Facebook. Add a dollop of confirmation bias and I can definitely see why people believe it, but what's actually happening is if anything more sinister.
It isn't that, or at least, not in this case. It's just to do with profiling.
They know enough about your wife to predict that she's going to be doing that.
It seems a bit more spooky than it is because most of the time, they get it wrong. In an average day, you probably see hundreds of targeted ads; you only really remember the ones that strike a chord like this.
Still, it's because other people like your wife will have posted about doing that this week, or related activities.
Really? Seems a bit too coincidental to me. My wife never posts about apples... Picking them is something we do in the garden literally once or twice a year for a few minutes at a time. Not really something worth posting about on social media. Profiling her on the basis of apples seems somewhat unlikely, unless she's been making lots of secret apple-related posts I don't know about. I'll interrogate her when she gets home.
Edit: just checked and her last post on FB was mid-July and it was about the train timetables bollocksing up her commute. She's not on any other social media and she uses FB fairly rarely anyway. It just seems a bit too specific. It's not even like we live in an area famous for apple trees or something. There just happens to be one in our garden.
Really? Seems a bit too coincidental to me. My wife never posts about apples... Picking them is something we do in the garden literally once or twice a year for a few minutes at a time. Not really something worth posting about on social media. Profiling her on the basis of apples seems somewhat unlikely, unless she's been making lots of secret apple-related posts I don't know about. I'll interrogate her when she gets home.
Edit: just checked and her last post on FB was mid-July and it was about the train timetables bollocksing up her commute. She's not on any other social media and she uses FB fairly rarely anyway. It just seems a bit too specific. It's not even like we live in an area famous for apple trees or something. There just happens to be one in our garden.
They know where she is, her age, gender, a bunch of historical stuff. It's enough.
She probably saw adverts for any number of things on that day. Theme parks (it's the school holidays and do you have kids?), DIY (a lot of people in her age bracket get new kitchens etc. in the summer), feminine hygiene products (gender) - and gardening equipment because people in her area/age/gender etc. tend to have gardens, and one of those products was an apple collector.
They're missing a trick. They should ping her loads of ads for shoes and handbags. Cliched, maybe, but she can't help herself. I generally only get served ads for beer and games. I'm clearly not part of a marketeer's wet-dream demographic.
They know where she is, her age, gender, a bunch of historical stuff. It's enough.
No, I don't think it's enough to get the timing THAT perfect. This story is too common and I have seen it happen myself. My profiling can't have changed overnight and yet targeted ads will. I don't know if my phone is listening but I wouldn't be all that surprised and I'm sure all messaging formats and emails are being scanned at the very least.
One thing I do know is that Amazon is stupid. You buy something and it bombards you with ads to buy loads more of the same thing. It also doesn't know yet what I already own, which at least shows there are limits to what it knows. And shopping for gifts or even just checking the price of something you'll never buy for a laugh messes up its ads something rotten.
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