Facebook Is Keeping Track of What You Buy at the Drugstore

[The Straight Story]

It took Facebook about six months to start using all that offline consumer data it's made deals for for more than just "research" and put all that rewards cards information to good lucrative use. With its new "ad effectiveness" program Facebook will serve specific ads that reflect your specific offline shopping habits, a set-up that ranges from creepy to uncomfortable.

Since announcing its partnership with Datalogix, a company that uses rewards card data from drugstores to track what people buy in offline retail stores, Facebook has partnered up with two similar firms Epsilon and Acxiom and has now started using all this information to serve more accurate ads, according to The New York Times's Somini Sengupta. Someone who bought Tums at CVS, for example, might start seeing ads for other digestive products on Facebook. Another person who bought a Ford five years ago, might start seeing ads new car ads because that's when people often think about trading in for a new model.

Our "IRL" shopping habits have officially made their way to the social network's money-making scheme—a pretty big departure from all this information just being used as anonymized data to see if ads are working.

http://www.nextgov.com/big-data/2013/03/nevermind-facebook-keeping-track-what-you-buy-drugstore/62109/?oref=ng-HPriver

[MineralMan]

1. Google's been doing that for a very long time.

Whatever you search for will show up in ads, just about everywhere you go.

Sometimes, though, they get it wrong. I write small business websites, so I do a lot of Googling to check out competition, etc. So, if I'm writing a website for a swimming pool contractor, I see lots and lots of ads for swimming pool related things. It's funny how that works.

[Cal Carpenter]

3. The difference is that this includes info from offline data

that FB has procured.

[MineralMan]

7. OK. But, whatever, really.

I see ads all the time. If they're relevant to my life, I might look at them. Otherwise, they don't even get a glance. I just can't get over-excited about advertising, on the Internet or anywhere else. I check Facebook once a day, right after I check my morning email. If one of my family members or friends posts something, I'll check it out. Usually, my Facebook session lasts about five minutes.

I can't even remember ever noticing any ads on Facebook. That's not what I'm there for.

Frankly, I've spent my entire life screening out advertising. I was born in 1945, and there have been ads in almost all media I consume ever since then. The car ads are in the Sports section. The food ads are on television. Who knows what the ads are on radio? I don't hear them, since the radio is just background noise. The Internet? Yah, there are plenty of ads there. Someone has to pay for shit. I don't pay any attention to them. If I'm looking for something to buy, I know exactly what to do to find it.

Some people see all this as ominous. I see it as something to ignore, just as I've been ignoring advertising all my life.

[Cal Carpenter]

9. Frankly

I am unconcerned with your personal anecdotes, your FB habits, or your assertion that some see 'all this as ominous'.

I was just trying clarify your misleading comments, that this is the same as google using your search history to give you ads.

This is about the collection, selling and use of OFFLINE data by online companies which is a substantially different thing.

[kestrel91316]

14. I'm not impressed by your unwarranted nastiness to MineralMan, noob.

[Cal Carpenter]

15. a)

I was very polite and straighforward in post #3. He was dismissive to me and changed the subject. I changed it back.

b) I have been a member here for a year longer than MM himself.

[kestrel91316]

19. Well you should have learned some manners by now.

I'm not impressed.

[OldDem2012]

21. The difference is MineralMan has earned respect on this board...you, not so much. nt.

[MineralMan]

22. That's kind of you to say, but some would differ with you.

DUers pretty much post what they please on DU. That's part of its charm, I think. Replies don't always exactly follow posts. They often include additional information. And so it goes. Some folks take umbrage if your reply doesn't correspond absolutely with what they posted. They're welcome to as much umbrage as they like, as far as I'm concerned. I don't use it, myself.

[Orrex]

16. ...

[MineralMan]

20. Oh, OK. Again, whatever.

The thing about DU is that people get to answer as they please. Your post can be about whatever you want it to be about. Mine may not be about the exact same thing yours is about. That's how it works. But, thanks for your reply.

[randome]

17. After a while, you can be very adept at ignoring ads.

Especially since they sometimes take a few seconds to load up. By that time, my mouse cursor is already moving me elsewhere and I don't even see the ad.

[AllyCat]

4. I have had a decrease in that kind of advertising since I started running Ghostery

I can't see photos on DU anymore, but there are far fewer targeted ads. However, I get lots more ads for conservative politicians and causes. Not sure what that should tell me.

[The Straight Story]

5. ghostery and adblock for the win

also on windows systems (have not tried it on the mac/etc) you can modify the hosts files so that sites using certain addresses basically get ported to /dev/null (ie, nowhere).

Some folks keep a good list of such addresses to use:

One article on this:

http://lifehacker.com/5817447/how-to-block-unwanted-ads-in-all-applications-and-speed-up-web-browsing-with-the-hosts-file

[MineralMan]

8. Cool, but why would I limit my Internet experience

that way? I want to see the photos on DU. My eyes just skip over advertising. I've had a lifetime of training to do just that.

[dreamnightwind]

13. It's only some photos that get blocked

When there is, for some reason, a Google Ad (don't remember the exact tag) tag placed in a DIV element surrounding the photo. My description is probably not 100% accurate, it's been awhile since I tried to figure this out. I wish someone would, seems to me there is no reason for such tags to be in an imbedded photo. For now, when I need to see the photo, I open that page in Internet Explorer since it's Firefox that I have configured with Ghostery.

[AllyCat]

2. I don't sign up for frequent buyer stuff. This is just one more reason not to do it.

[derby378]

6. Pay in cash if possible. And use those "loyalty cards" sparingly.

Better yet, try to shop at a drugstore or supermarket that doesn't even use loyalty cards.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

10. I pay cash as much as I can and I resisted the loyalty card at Walgreens for months.

Then they had something I needed and the discount was too steep to pass up. That doesn't mean I need to whip it out every time I buy something but the temptation now will always be there.

[MineralMan]

23. I got a Walgreen's loyalty card the day I was there

and found a 16GB USB thumb drive on sale for $9.99 if you had the card. I was looking for just such a thing, since I was switching computers and wanted to move some folders from the old one to the new one.

I also have a Cub Supermarket loyalty card, which I swipe religiously (I kneel as I swipe.) Cub has a deal with a local gas station chain, and you get a 5 cent per gallon discount for every $50 you spend at Cub. Today, I filled up my car. My discount was 25 cents per gallon, and that brought the gas price down to $3.28 per gallon. I like that.

Will I get some ads and stuff with my card? Sure. I'll ignore them, just like I ignore all ads.

[corkhead]

11. Hey, this pot of water we're in is getting kinda warm

slowly all sense of privacy is being stripped away from us. Younger generations are being conditioned to not care, but I do.

[Cal Carpenter]

12. Frog slow boil +1

[leftyohiolib]

18. tag

[Johonny]

24. my god Facebook might tell me when things I like are on sale

instead of just being a place to see kitten photo's.

Seems better way to advertise sales than those pages of mailers I get every week that go straight into the garbage can...

Why must we always see everything as nebulously evil?

[Initech]

25. Easy ways to solve this:

1. Firefox + Ad Block + Privacy Tracker = eliminates 90% of tracked ads on the internet.

2. Avoid signing up for rewards services - they exist only to track what you buy.

[Quantess]

26. Not if you pay with cash!