| Look, I understand your concern and for example when Facebook uses your phone number that you provided for two factor authentication as a means to target you, that’s wrong. (google “two factor targeting Facebook” and you’ll see what I am talking about) Now with that said, I honestly think tracking pixels are fine if they are used in non-nefarious ways. I would much rather get ads that are relevant to me rather than ads that have no significance. Now, I do have a problem with banner ads (Google display network for example) that follow me around the internet, but then again I should be picking a bone with the website that decides to clutter their side columns with display ads! The truth of the matter is the internet has always used the ad supported model as a source of revenue. We get free tools like Google sheets, drive and docs because of ads. Entire businesses are built using tools that are supported by google’s suite of tools. And in regards to Facebook, if you don’t want to be targeted stay off the platform. It’s that easy. Now, I do think Facebook SHOULD offer a payed version that has no ads. That seems like an easy solution. But the truth of the matter is Facebook has allowed an entire new industry of direct to consumer brands to successfully run e-commerce businesses because of their advertising tools. A net win IMO. But to blast me on hacker news because I am simply trying to help my wife with her craft business (using the very powerful targeting tools Facebook provides) is childish. Pick a bone with Facebook, not me. And by the way. You’ll notice I didn’t add anything special to the URL I provided in the post. No parameter such as ?source=hackernews so don’t worry about seeing my wife’s BEAUTIFUL pins on Facebook, although jeez you might need something to brighten up your day and perhaps cute little flower pins might help with that. |