[feenix566]

Facebook uses all this data to show you ads for things you might want to buy. Wouldn't you rather see that than ads for things you don't want to buy?

I occasionally watch the evening news and I am sick and tired of ads for drugs for old people. I'm not old and I don't need drugs. But the television stations can't target their ads at specific viewers (yet) so they target them at demographics. And old people tend to watch the evening news more than other demographics so that's what they show.

People act like Facebook (and every other company) is gathering data about people for some sort of nefarious plan for world domination. But all they're doing is improving the quality of connections between people making things (advertisers) and people who might want those things (consumers). Is that really so terrible?

[devinhelton]

> Facebook uses all this data to show you ads for things you might want to buy. Wouldn't you rather see that than ads for things you don't want to buy?

No, I prefer poorly targeted ads. Seeing ads for stuff I might want to buy is more distracting, more tempting, and forces me to expend my limited supply of willpower to resist the temptation.

[Zelphyr]

Targeted ads to me also means that company knows way more about me than I would prefer. Why is that a problem? It might not be. I'm not doing anything wrong. But I have curtains on my bathroom window for a reason. I'm not doing anything wrong in there but I also don't feel like anyone else needs to see it.

[kenning]

Your stated problem is that you're not being targeted closely enough for ads. This is the problem of someone with lots of excess income.

People who are tricked into getting new cars, phones, credit cards or even houses, despite being unable to deal with the accompanying debt, are the victims here.