Facebook & Google are in mega-money data relationship
For a long time, I have noticed that my Google searches unintentionally lead to a Facebook commercial. I realized this while looking to rent a house in 2022.
I bombarded Google with housing-related search terms, and my Facebook timeline became cluttered with various types of rental properties and other such information. I did not even bother checking the connection until I realized the pattern was quite repetitive.
I decided to do some experimentation.
After that, I realized that your Google search results do not just appear with random answers on Facebook unless you are looking to buy something or purchase a service.
I was looking to buy a refrigerator recently, so I looked up the price online, which is how most people find out how much a product costs. Konga and Jumia are the leading online sellers in Nigeria, and when you search for an item's price, they are the first results you will see.
Recently, Google has placed some other online vendors below Konga and Jumia, which often dwarfs their visibility. However, these other outfits and vendors have already placed ads on Facebook, so even if you scroll down to see them on Google, when you enter your Facebook page, these businesses will be the first to appear as you scroll down.
Look at these images and you will see the proofs. I took these photos to document my experiments and findings.
Facebook drinks the Data milked by Google
Facebook is the Bermuda Triangle of data, despite the fact that it was not originally designed to be a search engine. It was originally intended to be a social hub, but they have since expanded beyond that.
Their primary focus is on data: what you ate for breakfast, where you ordered it, and whether you are likely to return to that restaurant. What clothes are you wearing, how much you paid, and how frequently you spend money on whatever.
However, they do not directly ask people these questions; instead, they collect data from people, particularly those who willingly give it to them, and use Google's hub of endless information to make money from the millions of data and information flying around.
Now, people pay Facebook to get their business out there. Initially, the data available in Facebook's database is insufficient to promote these businesses to the appropriate target audience, so Facebook collaborates with Google in a massive data sale to bring you that extra commercial inquiry to the doors of your Facebook timeline.
No privacy policy
On the surface, it may appear to be a significant benefit or service, but the truth is that Google has no privacy or information protection policies; if your search item is for commercial purposes, they will immediately sell it to the highest bidder, with Facebook being the largest buyer and nextdoor neighbor. This occurs in a flash because this is an automated algorithm.
Commercial inquiry equals money
Now if your search term is not for commercial purposes, you'll see that they don't appear on your Facebook timeline, and that's because dollar worse that piece of data is useless.
For example, if you are looking for answers to questions like "what causes diabetes?" or "why are my children so stubborn?" You don't get anyone who is selling anything related to this.
The data may be useless to Facebook, but not to Google. Google will immediately connect you to the answers based on their Google web rankings, which is where the Google ad program makes money.
Conclusion
There are currently no web2 or web3 applications that connect buyers and sellers while rewarding data owners.
This is because the presence of data and information creates an opportunity for money to be made, and if there was a web giant that rewarded the primary owner of data, then some people would most likely make an extra income or a living selling data online.
Unfortunately, there isn't, and this is where web2 continues to rule the data industry. Maybe someday we will see this type of data commerce on a web3 platform, maybe not.
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Good morning, I hope youre well.
I absolutely concur that there's a connection. I have had similar experiences and I'd also note that the connection is made very quickly. I'd also mention that FB appears to listen to you too as after conversations with my wife about something, there are often related adverts appear on the timeline too. I've checked dozens of settings and don't seem to be able to stop this interference in my web usage. Privacy doesn't seem to matter to these huge corporations at all.
Hope you're as well as you can be, mate and best wishes to you :-)
Yeah I also think this is possible too. The Facebook AI algo is scary and I think it's capable of even things that would be considered invasive by us, but provided there's money to be made, Facebook absolutely doesn't care at all.
As for the settings you were looking for, there are no settings to shut this off. They'll probably never even thinking of making such settings (not that Facebook maxis would use it anyway) because it would decrease their access to maximizing the data of people.
Yes, thank you very much. How about you, it's been a while saw a post from you?
I have had similar experiences, searching for something as simple as a phone or a pair of shoes on Google, and the next thing I know, my Facebook is flooded with ads for those exact items. It’s almost like the platforms are reading my mind, but in reality, it’s just data being shared behind the scenes. What stood out most to me was how clearly the writer broke it down: if your search has commercial value, your data gets sold and reused instantly. It makes me think about how much control we really have over our personal information online.
The writer? But I am the writer lol.
It's monetization at its peak. When your search terms hits a "buy" or "sell" algorithm, then the system automatically carries it. Then you begin to see answers to the query you've inputed on Google, earlier before then. It's money, Facebook doesn't care about anything, except linking buyers with sellers. It was in the past that it was used for chatting and solely for engagement of whatever form
Haha, I thought you were sharing someone else opinion. You're right since they pay content creator now. i think their intention is more on money factor than it used to be in the past, which is just chat and communicate with family and friend.
Facebook sometimes helps me too in terms of getting things, but I feel it sometimes helps because you are just able to navigate any product on time. I never knew other sellers were really competing with Jumia and konga since they are still the top sellers, but it's good now, and it can really make one explore more.
Yeah it's a lot of convenience to get the pop ups on Facebook, but it's actually Google that's selling all that data to Facebook. Although people eventually get what they want to buy, but Google and Facebook in this case is making all the money.
I think it's a good things to them and a plus to them
You can't use duck duck go? I hate Google and Meta and refuse to use their products unless absolutely forced to by a site I really want to access. Today I had a site want picture of my ID to verity my identity. Needless to say they didn't get it and I closed the window.
That poor phone, I can tell it get a lot of use!
I don't have an account on it, and my original Google account is already 14 years, so I'm always lazy to explore other places as well, so I just stuck with using Google lol.
We have a lot of that here too. They want a picture of you and even with your ID else you can't use their service. The Nigerian government is now making it mandatory for people to always submit their faces and ID before they can even use regular services
@tipu curate
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Thanks 🙏
Data is important, and companies will always try to use what they can to get an advantage over you. It sucks, but that is a part of why they allow users to use them for free.
Well, without Facebook a lot of people will continue, except people who have built their business on it. If Facebook ceases to be free, I doubt it'll affect me in anyway
🙏
https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1k6a5w3/facebook_google_are_in_megamoney_data_relationship/
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When I want to make an online purchase, I typically start by looking for items on Facebook. However, I’ve found that some items for sale can be scams, as they may not be the real product I ordered, and the item I receive could be a fake. Because of this, I often choose to either go to a mall or search on Shopee, or visit the official store of the brand I’m interested in. I also check reviews on Facebook or TikTok to determine whether an online store is legitimate before making a purchase.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about how Google and Facebook share information. I hadn’t considered that before. I’ll definitely take that into account. You have a great eye for observation!