Meta Will Use Your Activity On Other Websites To Personalize Your Feeds (theverge.com)
- Reference: 0183717922
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/06/09/1733200/meta-will-use-your-activity-on-other-websites-to-personalize-your-feeds
- Source link: https://www.theverge.com/tech/946744/meta-website-activity-personalize-feeds
> For example, Meta says if you bought a tent online recently, you might see camping-related videos in your Reels feed. "We aren't collecting any new data as part of this update," the blog post says. "This is about using information that businesses already send to us to further improve your experience."
>
> Meta spokesperson Emil Vazquez tells The Verge that the company previously only used the activity across its apps, such as likes, views, and follows, to tailor the content you see. The company also started using conversations with its AI assistant to personalize ads last year.
[1] https://about.fb.com/news/2026/06/better-personalization-and-changes-to-controls-for-your-activity-from-other-businesses/
[2] https://www.theverge.com/tech/946744/meta-website-activity-personalize-feeds
So Creepy (Score:4, Insightful)
So creepy that they can do this. I've never used Facebook or anything associated with it. How do I do it? Easy? I just imagine Zuckerberg rummaging through my underwear drawer for personal info. Ewwww..... He's the ultimate creep.
You can't (Score:3)
They're not just sitting behind the bushes outside your house fapping away to every piece of data they harvested, they planted the bushes in the first place.
Double dog dare ya, Zuck. (Score:2)
Like to see him try it with Javascript disabled, cookies allowed only from a whitelist, and using Dillo and Elinks, my main two browsers. Give it your best shot, Zuck. I've never had a Facebook account.
Incorrect name (Score:2)
> ... Meta[stasize] spokesperson Emil Vazquez tells...
Its name is Evil Vazquez
So... (Score:2)
Nothing has changed?
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, I was assuming they've been doing this since day 1 of selling advertisement. I'm assuming this is targeted towards advertisers, trying to make them think the ads are better targeted now, thus justifying a price increase.
And that's good because...? (Score:3)
I understand why they are doing it. Trying to spin it as a good thing for users amounts to adding insult to injury.
Re: (Score:2)
Meta has run out of new ways to monetize information they're collecting from their own apps, so they're branching out into collecting all your activity across the net to give them new information they can aggregate, process, and sell.
Duh duh: POS site does POS things (Score:1)
For whoever still uses that POS site for 150 year-olds. Don't use that POS site. Avoid their other POS'esses WhatsDumbFapp and InstaFart as much as you can.
If this actually worked as advertised... (Score:3)
...it might be a bit useful
I expect it will be just more slop to avoid.
I would actually like good personalized advertising and recommendations, but only if they were good.
Re: (Score:2)
> I would actually like good personalized advertising and recommendations, but only if they were good .
You are their target audience.
Re: (Score:2)
I would argue that it can not be good, without facebook somehow knowing how you felt about what you were looking at on line. When you read an article discussing AI, are you doing that because you love AI, you're invested in AI stocks, you hate AI, you use AI in your job, AI took your job, the image with the headline was interesting, or maybe just random click. Thats hard for it to figure out, so it might just send you all the AI things in your feed to see how you respond.
Re: (Score:2)
> I would actually like good personalized advertising and recommendations, but only if they were good.
It's not about different or "good" ads. It's about modelling your profile so they know how much they can (over) charge you for the products and services advertised. It's about collecting more information then selling it to e.g your insurance company, so they can overcharge you for insurance on the basis that you spent too much time in the McDonalds app, browsing recipes for donuts or searching for trousers with a larger waist and information about chest pains.
VM spun up to browse (Score:2)
Spin up a LIVE based VM, with one of the more secure browsers. Then when you're done, all the cookies are poof ... gone.
This bypasses almost all forms of tracking/fingerprinting browsing systems.
Also, why can't hackers figure out how to poison cookies?
Re: (Score:2)
> Also, why can't hackers figure out how to poison cookies?
There's probably some extension for that.
My Pale Hairy Ass! (Score:1)
"to further improve your experience."
Read between the words (Score:2)
> "to further improve your experience."
You need to read between the words:
"to further improve your [ privacy raping ] experience."
And yes, "improve" most certainly has a different definition for Fucktardberg and all its privacy raping minions.
THE HELL IT WILL (Score:2)
Evil bastards.
Good luck (Score:2)
Good luck trying to find that "Activity from other businesses" setting. It's pretty much impossible to find. That's by design, no doubt.
Food, meat flavored (Score:2)
I couldn't possibly enjoy my Insta or Facebook feed any more.. Mmm, mm, mm.
I do not have either, is why.
"If you bought tent online recently, you might see camping-related videos in your Reels feed"
I don't understand this one. I blew my load on the tent. I don't need more tent porn. I'll just end up getting sick and tired of tents.
No, they won't. (Score:2)
Hard to personalize feeds for an account that never logs in to read those feeds.
I hope they spend lots of money to do this for lots of dead accounts.
If Meta can do this (Score:2)
then so can any other company or entity or government.
To most of us nerds, we don't use social media anyway, so who cares. But this is essentially proof of concept to show how it can (is) be done by other entities that we can't avoid. Like credit bureaus. Governments. Spy agencies. Data brokers. Hackers.
This needs to be regulated and something you can block at the personal level across all devices and should be opt-out by default.
We already knew that (Score:2)
If I buy a washing machine, I get hundreds of washing machine ads, in case I'm a laundromat, I guess.
Ditto for all those people who have a dozen tents.
Meta is evil! (Score:2)
"starts in July" and "can be disabled " figures they would not make utilizing their wide spread past and continuing surveillance opt-in. That proves their continuing bad intentions.
Sorta reminds me of universal default (Score:2)
From wikipedia:
Universal default is a now-banned practice in the United States financial services industry whereby a creditor would change the terms of a loan from the normal terms to the default terms (i.e. the terms and rates given to those who have missed payments on a loan) when that lender is informed that their customer has defaulted with another unrelated lender, even though the customer has not defaulted with the first lender.[1]
In order words:
"Pray I don't alter it further" - Darth Vader
So what you
contained (Score:1)
so I do my BEST to contain Meta. I use a separate browser on my desktop just for FB, and don't use the browser for anything else. Same on my phone. No FB app, No Messages app. Not perfect, but at least I feel like I'm doing something.
Title Correction: (Score:5, Insightful)
> Meta[stasize] Will Use Your Activity On Other Websites To Personalize Your Feeds
"Privacy Rapist Will Use Your Activity On Other Websites To Personalize Your Feeds"
There FTFY.
Re: (Score:2)
Mod parent Funny (and basically the expected joke), but based on recent books about Facebook, I'm not understanding what part of this story is supposed to be news in the sense of "new".
The thing about "opt-out" is that almost no one will bother, but Zuck can always say "It's your own fault for not figuring it out."
If this were really a personal attack, then I'd use his real nickname, but I don't know Zuck from Adam. And if I were an "effective" writer, then I'd be better at coining memes. (Latest idea along
Re: (Score:2)
> Mod parent Funny (and basically the expected joke),
Joke? What joke? This is a legitimate correction.
Re: (Score:2)
Does someone need a therapist?