Is Facebook Outing Us?

[adrienner99]

I have a facebook page under my male name, and I have never visited a crossdressing friend or group on facebook. But I have just noticed that on the right side of my page, there is a column of Suggested Groups that includes crossdressing organizations. They can be deleted but new ones crop up every other day or so.

I am not certain if any of my FB friends can see the column on not, but I prefer they don't. Obviously facebook or google or someone is tracking where we all go online--I just did not realize they were posting such personal information on pages we supposedly control. I see ads all the time related to sites I visited, but the Suggested Groups column surprised and worried me.

Might be a good idea to check your own pages, unless you are already out to your FB friends.

[rachael.davis]

If you're running a later edition of Windows which doesn't give you access to site cookies they are being read by Faceboook as suggested ads

[Amy Lynn3]

I viewed an all in one briefer on Ebay and it showed up on my Facebook page. It was bubblegum pink and boy did I ever hear it from my male friends.

Avast antivirus is very good and has a really good sweep for cookie removal. The very best part about it....it's FREE and does a great job. They have some versions you pay for, so it is up to you.

[melanie206]

Rachael is correct. Delete all cookies and also your history. To prevent future leakage, there are two approaches. Either only use the private browsing mode of your browser or use a different browser for your CD browsing. Facebook is tricky and very tenacious about trying to associate you with other sites and advertisers. I used to have a FB account for Melanie as well as my male self but ultimately felt I couldn't completely control what it might be doing that could compromise things for me.

[Adriana Moretti]

ha ha........yup thats the reason....I keep getting ad's for Aesos and Forever 21.....Mark Zuckerburg is a sneaky fella.......the only one seeing that though is you.

For those of you already out..if you wanna linky link....
https://www.facebook.com/adriana.moretti.334

[Promethea]

Adrienne, it's not posting those things anywhere, it's only showing them to you.
The only way someone can see those suggestions is if they use your computer.

If you share your computer clearing the cookies and then begin to use private browsing for CD related things is the best option.

[Danitgirl1]

Not to make light of your situation/concerns, but I find it hilarious that my 'boy' Facebook serves me ads for women's clothes, whilst my 'girl' facebook serves me ads for either men's clothes OR endometriosis treatments. ODD
Have a great weekend
Daniella
xx

[melanie206]

Also, be careful on Amazon. Somewhere along the line it got the idea that I liked dresses and won't let it go no matter how many chain saw blades and floor jacks I look at.

[Michelle 78]

I know what you mean about Amazon, they do that to me too, every time you login they give you recommendations normally dresses etc. We have a store here in the UK called Debenhams (a department store like Macy's in the US) all you have to do is look at women's clothing on their site and you get e-mails a few days later asking if you are still interested in buying them!! nearly been caught out before because of that.

[I Am Paula]

Facebook is the world's largest, and richest information gathering business. Do you really think they gave you FB because they love you so much? They have one motive only- to track EVERYTHING you do with your computer. Not to be a conspiracy monger, no, they are not trying to find terrorists, they are concerned with what toothpaste you use. Facebook is outing you, to someone. It may never out you to people you know, but every advertiser knows your hobbies, and interests, and is trying to sell you something. If you are tired of this invasion of privacy, just delete your FB account...wait a minute...you can't. You can make your account inactive, but it's still counting your keystrokes, and deciding what sneakers you should wear.

[Alexis.j]

Its mainly google that does most of the analysis. ..
do yourself a favour and have a look at your google profile. I am a female, aged 28-30, and a bunch of other likes and interests, which, gets sold for personalised marketing. ..
I noticed google was the issue, because shortly after searching for something spicific, i got an advert popup on my Facebook page, regarding that specific thing.

[heather ann martin]

Completely "out"

[Megan Thomas]

just delete your FB account...wait a minute...you can't. You can make your account inactive

Actually you can delete your facebook account rather than make it inactive. Granted, it's not obvious or clear how to but I've recently managed it. I ended up using a search engine to find the link to deleting it though. Once done they mark it inactive for 14 days and then delete it. How deep the deletion goes within the facebook empire is another question altogether...

[Amy Lynn3]

Just another post to say Ebay tracks my searches and when I log in the pop ups come. They show me bras in my size, dresses, shoes or panties I have purchased or viewed in the past. I have no idea who they share information with and really could care less.

On the facebook site, all the personal information I gave them about me was my name. I'm sure they follow my key strokes, but I never gave them my home town, birthday or occupation. They always want to know where I attended school......I did mention a community college in one of my post and it says on my profile that is where I went to school....not.

[Shirley Anne]

I think Google is the problem rather than Facebook.I dont and never have used Facebook but am a member off various forums most vehicle related and the side ads that come up are allways for womens clothes and lingerie mostly from websites I have browsed.

[Cheryl Ann Owens]

It's funny this subject came up. Just two days ago I noticed on the right side of my FB page a Yahoo article about transgender youth so I read it. I know on my regular browsers I get ads for women's clothing and on FB get related searches from my ebay browsing.

I do have a couple GG friends who know me. I should call and ask them to check my profile page to see what it might show.

One time I sent a male friend the link to a news article. He jokingly mentioned that he wasn't interested in the clothing ads. I played dumb but found it interesting.

Cheryl

[~Joanne~]

Not to be a conspiracy monger

It's not a conspiracy when tracking you is what they are doing. It's all they do. I use chrome for facebook as google is just as bad so they can track each other.

[Lorileah]

Your profile page will only show what you have browsed for to YOU. What your friends will see is what they have surfed

[Megan Thomas]

It's also quite possible on your facebook page to view it as the public see it, so you can see it from the other side of the fence so to speak.

[MsDanii]

It could be very well doing it. These days with marketing in anything ebay, google, facebook. They all want our online $$.
Just practice safe surfing and you will be able to make the Internet the way.. you ... want it

I'm happy to show my profile if anyone wants to say hi

[RachelPortugal]

"Suggested friends" lists could potentially out you. Along side all those who have "mutual friends" there are those that you wonder why they have been suggested. I had some time to spare so I tried to follow the activity of a spurious "suggested friend" to find that they had commented on the same article as a friend. So anyone who comments on the same article as you could end up being a "suggested friend" for one of your friends.

Taking the scenario a bit further, I use my male email address for FB login and also for various news channels where I sometimes leave comments. My online name is not recognisable to anyone else viewing such pages, but my log-in email address is seen by my browser, could a comment via my male email address login on a trans related article elsewhere seep back into FB? How far is the reach of their tracking?

[reb.femme]

I'm on FB and just about anywhere else as my femme self these days, with website to match and so I've pretty much given up worrying to be honest. If anyone logs on to my laptop, my background is quite telling too.

Rebecca

[AletaHawk]

If you're trying to keep things a secret, make sure you use a separate browser and only browse in Private mode. I use Firefox strictly for my femme side stuff, so there's never any cross pollination between browsers.

[Lady Catherine]

I use a different browser for male and female stuff. Seems to work.

[Nicole Erin]

Facebook cannot be trusted with ANYthing.
Facebook privacy is about as "private" as running through a football stadium naked.