This is really important

I don’t get any of that sort of political stuff on my Facebook feed. Probably because I’m extremely careful about what I post on there in the first place. My profile is completely locked down, nothing overly personal or political, and I don’t indulge in the sad popularity contest of befriending anyone I haven’t met in real life (and not all of those I have met make it either!). And none of this “friends of friends can see your posts” rubbish either. Why would I want people I don’t know seeing my whereabouts or opinions on anything?

If you started hanging about in real life with people with dodgy politics you’d rightly expect to be exposed to their views and propaganda. It’s just the same with the internet. If you put it out there you’ll get something back. Every action has a reaction etc. If people learned this and stopped exposing themselves to strangers, whether individuals or organisations, things would change. Sadly the genie is probably too far out of the bottle now

Very, very rarely. And if I do I can usually attribute it to something I’ve clicked on or searched for. I don’t live in a marginal constituency, so I take your point on that. But On the other hand I didn’t get propaganda in the run up to the EU referendum either. Nothing. At all.  

I’m not saying people should be complacent. Quite the opposite. I think it’s complacent to have your profile wide open, to accept every time FB says “Facebook will use your personal data...”, to accept “friends” you don’t know from Adam and to involve yourself in political pages, groups etc where your presence suggests an affiliation or political view. If you’re going to go ahead and do all that then you have to accept the implications. Someone is probably going to try and change your mind. 

Thats not to to say I think FB is blameless, it’s become a monster. But many of the people using it have fed that monster. 

But surely the point is not whether you see such propaganda yourself but whether you're happy to have your future decided (potentially) by those who are less careful / more susceptible to such politically-motivated manipulation of social media than you?

A few years ago I checked what Google knew about me and it was scary how accurate the profile was and the constant bombardment with ads for what I recently searched for became annoying.

I made the decision to reduce my online footprint, cleared my Google history and stopped using its services, nowadays always use DuckDuckGo as my search engine and live where possible within the Apple ecosystem and use a Password Manager to set unique complex passwords for each site that requires signing in.

Only have a placeholder Facebook account with no timeline entries and no connected friends for accessing any sites which I need to but will always try to find an internet site and use as a last resort, my life is not interesting enough to require a public record and have never seen the point to follow a company on Facebook and if I need information will use the Companies website.

Never use Facebook / Twitter or any other intermediary to sign into any accounts and will always set up an unique account, if this option is not available will not use the service.

Only public profile is Twitter which I use to get information and primarily follow theatre sites and a few selected personal accounts, have only tweeted about theatre matters and keep my personal / political footprint to a minimum.


This is quite draconian and maybe too much but a personal choice, cannot see why Google / Facebook etc can monetise/ influence my internet presence with very little if no personal control.

I visited the Hellfire Caves in West Wycombe today. When planning the trip on Saturday I looked at the area on Google Maps from my home computer. On Sunday I was getting advertisements on my phone for the High Wycombe area. I hadn't done anything else in connection with that area. I hadn't mentioned my plans anywhere.

What I find disturbing is that the advertising related to that area and nowhere else that I had also looked at on Google Maps.

Although in a sense the advertising was dead wrong, because I was there for just two hours and have no interest in meeting singles in High Wycombe. Or anyone else in High Wycombe, for that matter. Sorry, Google: damned clever (and creepy as hell), but way off target.

Whilst a very valid point, the point here isn't about having your data stored and used to tailor ads to suit, it's about being aware of the frightful political gain and gross mis-use of this privilege. 
Somehow these massive conglomerates seem to get away without any duty of care to the users, the people that made their businesses successful and gave them their money. 

Clickbait thread title.

And it worked, didn't it?

I'd say it's more vague than clickbait, though...

"You'll never guess what the OP looks like now!"

At a recent data talk we were told about a US water company that had invented an app that was designed to alert you to leaks in the house by monitoring your water usage. It turned out to be so accurate that it could tell whether people in the household were brushing their teeth or not.

As there's a documented link between oral hygiene and heart attacks (really!) they were then able to sell the data to health insurance companies.

Scary stuff.