
Facebook ads in the UK General Election 2017 - coffeedoughnuts
https://whotargets.me/
======
eck
Speaking of FB ad targeting in elections, I was recently surprised to learn
that an advertiser can give FB a specific list of names of people they want to
target.

I learned that because I own a handful of shares of Arconic, which is a
company in the midst of a hostile takeover attempt. I was rather curious how
FB figured that out... but both sides know my identity, and apparently
whatever I agreed to when I opened a brokerage account included giving my
identity to companies I invest in, and them giving it to activist investors,
and the company/investors giving it to social networks.

My understanding is that in the US at least, it's common for both parties to
attempt to maintain complete databases of all voters, so it's feasible for
them to select individual ad targets themselves and just give FB the names.

~~~
nommm-nommm
>an advertiser can give FB a specific list of names of people they want to
target.

This guy pranked his roommate with targeted Facebook ads -
[http://ghostinfluence.com/the-ultimate-retaliation-
pranking-...](http://ghostinfluence.com/the-ultimate-retaliation-pranking-my-
roommate-with-targeted-facebook-ads/)

~~~
bartread
That story is _awesome_. Absolutely made my day. Thanks for posting the link.

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pjc50
One of the weird things (for Americans) about UK elections is the really tiny
amount of money involved, because almost all advertising is banned or
spending-restricted. Everyone gets a free mailshot and a 10-minute TV slot or
two (party political broadcast), but you don't get tons of attack ads on TV,
"PACs", or even paid billboards.

Facebook is very different. There was apparently a lot of very sophisticated
targeting going on for Brexit.

(There are a number of conservative MPs under investigation by the police for
violating spending limits, plus a developing story about money laundering from
HSBC: [https://www.thecanary.co/2017/04/28/breaking-dark-money-
hsbc...](https://www.thecanary.co/2017/04/28/breaking-dark-money-hsbc-
conservatives-2010-election/) )

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coffeedoughnuts
Associated Guardian article on the tool:
[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/03/free-
soft...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/03/free-software-
reveal-facebook-election-posts-targeted-chrome-extension)

~~~
dom96
Off-topic, but has anyone else noticed that many images shown on the Guardian
lately have been really bad quality JPEGs with many artifacts? The "who
targets me?" picture is one example.

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jamesrcole
It's not immediately obvious what the utility of this plugin is. They say it
can show me who's targeting me with ads on Facebook... well, can't I just go
to Facebook to find this out?

I'm not saying there isn't any utility, but I don't think it's obvious enough
from reading the front page of the site.

~~~
leenookx
It's partly to help raise awareness of this kind of advertising, and start
maybe looking at its impact on the elections themselves. Also, if you are able
to capture data from multiple feeds then you can also start to spot trends and
maybe electioneering sheenanigans.

From the Guardian article [0]:

"It aims to show who campaigns are targeting, how much the parties are
spending and will shed light on whether targeted adverts are crossing the
boundary into 'fake news'."

[0] [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/03/free-
soft...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/03/free-software-
reveal-facebook-election-posts-targeted-chrome-extension)

------
d2p
People install extensions that have access to things like "all data on
Facebook.com" _far_ too easily from complete strangers on the internet :/

~~~
ghughes
They already gave the data to Facebook, so I think that ship has sailed.

~~~
d2p
But Facebook are a big organisation that a) has a reputation to keep, b) a lot
of smart security engineers and c) are very unlikely to hand their software
over to a bad guy for an envelope of money.

Why would you trust your Facebook account (or any other account) to a random
stranger on the internet you've never met, heard of, or even seen? Whose real
name you probably don't even know?

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
You had me at _" Facebook has a reputation to keep"_. Indeed, yes!

It's worth nothing that everyone who works at Facebook, including the CEO,
_are_ random strangers. That I know (some of) their _names_ doesn't help me
sleep well at night.

Incidentally, I don't have a facebook account, and I sleep fine.

Edit: didn't Mark Zuckerberg once say "people who trust me are dumb fucks", or
something to that affect? Screw that guy and the horse he rode in on.

~~~
askafriend
Regarding your edit, it baffles me that people continue to bring that quote
up. Zuck said that at 19 years old. Do you realize the amount of dumb shit
that I thought and said at 19? People grow and learn and change. You don't
think he learned a thing or two after growing his company from nothing to a
$400B behemoth?

Now if his behavior was _consistent_ and he continued to say things like that
today, then maybe the evidence would hold some merit. Otherwise it's just
pointless cherrypicking. To hold something like that against him over a decade
later? That's just irrational hatred.

And just to be clear this is the full quote with context:
[https://pastebin.com/4a2aLp11](https://pastebin.com/4a2aLp11)

And with the extra context, the quote makes more sense. At the time it _was_
dumb of those people to just submit personal information to a random dude at
Harvard.

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fiftyacorn
The use of targetted ads during elections was the reason I quit facebook

I had read an interview the one of the UKIP social media guys talking about
that US company that provided services to the leave campaign. he shut his own
facebook down after hearing about how it worked

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lol768
Looks like an interesting project. Is there any reason the extension isn't
available for Firefox (missing WebExtension APIs maybe)?

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th0br0
How does this work? Do they collect user's profiles and try to reverse the ad
target?

~~~
leenookx
No, the extension only extracts ad information from your Facebook timeline as
you are reading it. Apart from the minimal information requested when you
install the extension (which I believe you may be able to skip) they don't
capture anything personally identifiable.

Their privacy policy is here: [https://whotargets.me/privacy-
policy/](https://whotargets.me/privacy-policy/)

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jsonne
Now I may be being cynical, but as an advertiser, couldn't this project be
just as easily an attempt to backwards construct targeting by competitors of
companies and politicians?

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joe_g_young
The Extension does not accept my area code-- 97222. I get the gist from the
website that it is targeting British/European users.

~~~
leenookx
Yes, currently the ad is intended for use during the UK general election. I
believe there's a longer term plan which may include widening the scope if it
goes well, and there's enough interest, etc.

