So I bought a rather sensitive item outside of FB on a retailers' webpage. Thought using private browsing was enough (I always do even for trivial stuff).<p>Now, somehow FB tracked me, found a similar item in FB Marketplace and shows me it in the main app menu as a suggestion next to Marketplace option. Like in this image, but the white Marketplace panel also has a thumbnail: https://brayve.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/echo/fb_menu_revamp2.png [1]<p>I deleted all the stuff from ad preferences, "activity outside FB", turned it off completely. I long-pressed the thumbnail and asked FB not to show it anymore, but it persists.<p>Does the HN crowd know how to disable this crap if asking FB not to show it doesn't cut it? Now I can't open FB in the public... :/<p>[1] Won't post my own screenshot, because image censorship is easy to screw up, I couldn't find a screenshot with such thumbnail on the web.
Did you purchase the item from a retailer that you gave an email or phone number which matches the one on your Facebook account? If so, I would suspect such an identifier is being supplied by the retailer to Facebook for ad targeting. It could also be your credit card issuer, potentially.<p>Private browsing helps prevent browser-based tracking, but doesn't help at all if both sides are playing together and have ways of correlating your identity.
Your IP address, browser fingerprinting (despite the private browsing) and so on.<p>There are just too many ways to identify you, and therein lies the problem.<p>If this kind of thing is concerning to you, you have no option but to delete the FB account.<p>EDIT 1: Removed MAC address from my comment, which was incorrect as noted below.<p>EDIT 2: This is a test that is available from EFF to test your browser fingerprinting: <a href="https://panopticlick.eff.org/" rel="nofollow">https://panopticlick.eff.org/</a>
To answer your main question go to link below -> turn off ads based on data from partners<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/568137493302217" rel="nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/help/568137493302217</a>
I quit bookface many years ago because of exactly this reason. Well, this and the fact that FB has absolutely blown the trust of keeping all this data on us without it being spilled into the universe every few years. Or worse, used against us politically.<p>Anyway I wish I had a solution other than "delete the account and don't look back," but I don't. I will say that life goes on and those people in your life that really care will find a way to communicate with you. And the ones that don't? I don't miss them at all, really.
As many commenters have pointed out, Facebook (and a lot of other sites) have many myriad ways to track you, and so something such using private browsing mode was insufficient to protect your privacy.<p>What should trouble you, however, is that this sort of correlation is going on all the time in the background. It's not necessarily always the case that the correlation is made apparent to you. Often times (most times?) it will be totally invisible.
IP Address.. If my wife browse an item, just browse no need to purchase, i get the ads. Also many track you even if you open private browsing [1].<p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/fingerprintjs/fingerprintjs" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/fingerprintjs/fingerprintjs</a>
Social cooling, IRL. From just a week ago:
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24627363" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24627363</a>
It is more likely the retailer uploaded this purchase to Facebook with hopes to target you in the future. If you used the same email address or the phone number associated with your Facebook account at the checkout, Facebook "enriched" your interest graph with this information.<p>In these cases private browsing or a VPN or a using Tor would not help. This is a much common vector for interest targeting at Facebook. Retailers willfully share what you believed would be private with ad targeting platforms like Facebook and Google. Twitter has something similar too I think.
Are you sure the data is from the purchase? For example, did you search for similar things before making the purchase?<p>Otherwise, sometimes I suspect ads are targeted by IP. Sometimes I see ads for things my wife is interested in.<p>You might want to try VPN. At least you'll see ads for all the sketchy things other VPN users buy!
Unfortunately I have no advice to give to you in such a shitty situation, but this is #1 reason why I have never installed any Facebook-owned app on any smartphone I've ever owned (including WhatsApp and Instagram, of course).<p>I still interact with their products when I have to, but exclusively from a browser with an adblock.<p>And Instagram forcing people to install an app to even create an account in its early days was the sole reason why I've never had one.
I'm pretty sure Facebook does simple IP address tracking to serve ads. I've noticed my wife and I both get served ads for things the other has recently searched for.
>Now I can't open FB in the public... :/<p>Just poison the data. Break their algorithms by going on a bit of a virtual shopping spree. You wont even have to buy anything, just place in cart and cancel later on. Get those targeted ads replaced with ads for machine parts, woodworking tools, craft supplies, coffeemakers, etc. Make sure you ARE logged in when you do this, so that these results have a higher priority for the algorithm to pull. Some products will also COMPLETELY poison your profile, just like a runaway slave throwing red herring. Anything related to pregnancy or impotence will do this. If they want data, give it to them. Drown them in it.<p>PS. I wind up shopping for parts for my job on my phone all the time, I know this works. Even when you dont have the accounts connected, they do.
Full disclosure, I nuked my facebook account in 2016. Having said that can't you just block the ads with ublock origin? If that doesn't work, I'd start going one level deeper and start blocking individual javascript files until I found the one that controlled the adverts. None of this may work, but it's worth a shot?
Have a look at these sites:
<a href="https://amiunique.org/" rel="nofollow">https://amiunique.org/</a>
<a href="https://panopticlick.eff.org/" rel="nofollow">https://panopticlick.eff.org/</a><p>Your browser leaks a lot of information about you
Private browsing doesn't help with this type of tracking. You need to use a browser or a browser add-on that blocks Facebook as a third-party connection. So if any site or app has a Facebook pixel that sends data back to Facebook it will block it from doing so. Alternative is not to use Facebook.
i lost hope and started using Mozilla with Ublock origin and privacy badger, i know i can't stop billion dollar companies from collecting my data, but with the above combo , at least i can stop them from rubbing my data on my face
It's a bit of a nightmare we've created for ourselves, isn't it? How did we get to the point where your purchase at one store has become a kind of commercial gossip bought and sold by companies, leveraged to sell even more things?<p>Why can't a singular purchase be just that?
Are you saying you removed every single item from your "Interests" in ad settings? If you haven't done that before it can take a while to remove all the accumulated topics.<p>I honestly can't remember the last time I saw an ad on FB
Is there a way I can make items like this show up on my friend's FB pages?<p>If it's possible, and lots of people do this, and lots of victims complain, then maybe FB will finally give us a method to eliminate certain ads.
For those menu item suggestions, if you long press them you should get the option to remove the preview/suggestion. That should at least make it not show up again in the app menu.
Did you use the same email address? I backed something on Kickstarter, and the only common factor between that web session and my facebook web sessions was my email address. I suggest you put in a GDPR request to delete everything they have on you.
Step 1. Delete the app.<p>Step 2. Logout of facebook on your browser / clear cookies.<p>Step 3. Make all private purchases in firefox.<p>Step 4. Create a new facebook account telling your friends you were hacked.<p>Step 5. Never open facebook in public and don't create that expectation with peers.
FYI using a "private window" in your browser makes your traffic private to pretty much no one. it just means that the browser won't collect <i>certain</i> data, but will still collect some, and everything else that tracks you still tracks you
> Now I can't open FB in the public... :/<p>Sure you can. Let your freak flag fly man ... I wouldn't be too worried about whatever it is you bought. You bought it after all, didn't you?<p>(I am coming at the context of this being an adult purchase, like a dildo or something)<p>The situation is a bummer, but don't let something in your FB account give you any amount of shame over this.