
'Facebook baby ads taunted me after stillborn' - NoB4Mouth
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-45901514/facebook-baby-ads-taunted-me-after-stillborn
======
eatbitseveryday
> Facebook said it was caused by a bug in the system that has now been fixed.

Funny how problems like these are attributed euphemistically to "bugs" that
are "fixed" in reporting.

I do not often see journalism incorporating detailed descriptions of computer-
related mishaps other than "glitches" [1,2]. It does not help that reporting
on these circumstances to journalists may also be mediocre.

[1] [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-
gridlock/wp/2016/07/2...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-
gridlock/wp/2016/07/21/long-lines-for-southwest-airlines-passengers-at-area-
airports/)

[2] [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-
switch/wp/2015/07/08...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-
switch/wp/2015/07/08/computer-glitches-are-basically-inevitable-but-for-big-
companies-they-can-be-big-problems/)

~~~
bitforger
Would it really matter? The root cause would probably sound something like
this:

"The user's preferences were ignored because the advert system failed to
invalidate the cache during the change, causing the user's previously cached
settings to be used. This occurred only for a small set of users, who were in
a similar geographic location and were assigned to an experimental cohort to
test an updated component of the advert system."

Would anyone understand this? Would anyone care?

~~~
dr_teh
I feel like turning this into a technical issue is sleight of hand

~~~
thedevindevops
Ah but you see, it isn't, here's what happened in the ticket system:

Feature: Display most profitable ads to users without offending anyone.

Bug: User was offended.

Resolution: Add user to block list for offending advert.

Status: resolved.

------
010101010101
My wife had a miscarriage last December; we’ve been getting mailers
advertising baby formula for months - one of them was literally an entire box
of samples. Turns out we’d both been trying to throw them away before the
other one saw them, because it’s kind of soul crushing as a reminder. Thanks,
future!

------
ganeshkrishnan
One of my acquaintances/facebook friend's daughter was murdered in Australia
and she got ads about "surprising your daughter with this beautiful gift"

It's heart breaking to even think about it.

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eco
I don't know if this would have stopped this particular instance but
"Parenting" is one of three ad categories you can hide completely in your
Facebook ad settings (the other two being Alcohol and Pets) so at least you
have the option to be creeped out by other types of ads instead.

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tarboreus
This sucks. I thought "why not install an adblock," but not everyone thinks
like that, and that's fair.

~~~
paulie_a
That doesn't work on the Facebook app. And then they block you for reporting
too many ads. Facebook ads are late 90s era quality.

Not to mention fradulent.

~~~
yellowapple
"And then they block you for reporting too many ads."

Glad to see Facebook has the customer's best interests at heart.

~~~
BobFromDown
To be fair if you try to block all ads you're not really a customer.

~~~
drofmij
Users are not the customer - advertisers are. We don’t pay facebook to use it
advertisers do.

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dplgk
Surely, they also get snail mail related to babies. This is not a
technology/Facebook problem.

~~~
robjan
Not sure about elsewhere but in the UK we have a mechanism to prevent that:
[https://secure.dma.org.uk/bmpsr/](https://secure.dma.org.uk/bmpsr/)

------
sublupo
If you get offended by ads then install an ad blocking service. When I
recently got a new computer, I tried to support content creators by not
blocking their ads. After a few days I gave up, there were too many semi
pornographic ads that offended me. After installing ublock origin, all my
problems went away.

~~~
alex__c
That sounds easy until you realize you would need a special adblocker for
Facebook. Ublock Origin doesn't handle those.

And don't even get started on mobile adblocking, it's still widely uncharted
territory. I had to use an altogether new browser on Android, because mobile
Chrome doesn't allow ad-blocking plugins. Shocking, I know.

~~~
WalterSear
Social Fixer

