

Facebook Allows Advertisers to Target Users Based on Offline Spending Habits - prostoalex
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702303743604579353262830578966-lMyQjAxMTA0MDMwMDEzNDAyWj

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mynewwork
"Google is effective when people search for things they already want to buy
and then see ads for relevant products. Facebook is better for educating
consumers about products they might want to buy in the future."

Funny, this divide probably falls exactly where many people draw the line
between "Good" and "Bad" advertising. The former is solving a problem, the
latter is convincing you that you have a problem they can solve.

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yummyfajitas
I'm not searching for a phone app that lets me call and pay for a livery cab
from wherever I am. I'm also not searching for an electric car. Or a vacuuming
robot. I didn't even know these things existed until after they did.

It's "bad advertising" to tell me "hey, this thing you don't know to search
for is out there"?

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jonathanjaeger
Personally I've found the lookalike audiences to be much more effective as a
targeting strategy to increase conversion rate and volume on Facebook than the
Datalogix/Acxiom type data. Perhaps I need to give it another chance. Also,
not everyone has access to the data needed to make a good lookalike audience
on Facebook.

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loceng
My only issue with this is that it's not expressly stated; Sure, it's probably
indirectly stated through the Terms we all agreed to without reading.

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frandroid
I don't think they would even need to get your agreement to do this. Getting
data from other vendors and matching it to their own doesn't breach any
existing privacy laws, is my guess.

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unclebucknasty
> _...doesn 't breach any existing privacy laws..._

Maybe not laws, but certainly ethics and/or good practices regarding privacy.
It falls under the whole "how we use your data" disclosure, much of which for
some companies is just reassurance regarding how they _don 't_ use your data.

For me, when in doubt regarding inclusion, the guiding question should be,
"would a reasonable person want to know we're doing this?"

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username223
You're making the mistake of applying ethical reasoning to soulless greed-
heads. It's much simpler: "how much money can we make by doing this" vs. "how
much would settling a class action suit cost, times the probability of having
to settle."

