[kylemclaren]

You are 100% correct about this. People have appeared on "People you may know" when I have absolutely zero connection to them other than I have chatted to the on What's App... I'm afraid I may have to stop using the service soon... was great until FB bought it.

[javiramos]

I agree - it is amazing how even a small mention of a product in a whatsapp conversation with my friends turns into a barrage of related ads on Facebook. We have even started teasing each other by mention funny products just to indundate each other with irrelevant ads. So sad - my assumption is: anything you say or do in an electronic device is NOT private.

[bb101]

I wonder how this could work when Whatsapp advertises that conversations are encrypted end-to-end.

[jpalomaki]

These kinds of things might be just random. You see probably thousands of ads during the day, but most of them are not registered by your conscious mind. Only when there is a notable connection to something, your brain wakes up and you register the ad.

There's also the option that before bringing up something in conversation, your friend has made some related searches or reacted to a related ad. Facebook could then make the decision to show the ad to you based on your friend past behavior and the fact that you two had a conversation.

[riteshpatel]

> These kinds of things might be just random. You see probably thousands of ads during the day, but most of them are not registered by your conscious mind. Only when there is a notable connection to something, your brain wakes up and you register the ad.

This is similar to the Cocktail Party Effect

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail_party_effect

[482794793792894]

It's end-to-end-encrypted between the proprietary WhatsApp clients, but they might very well scan things inside of the WhatsApp client.

[endorphone]

I don't use WhatsApp. Most of the people I know don't. People have appeared on my suggested contacts when I have no other connection with them.

Clearly Facebook uses many, many sources of data.

[lazyjones]

> People have appeared on my suggested contacts when I have no other connection with them.

Have you considered the possibility that those other people have been searching for you on FB for some reason?

[coldtea]

>You are 100% correct about this. People have appeared on "People you may know" when I have absolutely zero connection to them other than I have chatted to the on What's App...

Well, isn't it obvious though? Facebook owns WhatsApp and has access to both "social graphs".

(Plus, it can also infer "people you may know" from people your friends in FB and Whatsapp know).

[nebabyte]

Did you think they were saying otherwise?

[coldtea]

No, I thought they presented it as surprising, when it's totally obvious.

[tehlike]

Im stating to use signal. Except network effect is strong...