To feel a bit put out about my googling habits being announced on facebook?

[Psammead]

I know. Facebook. Work of the devil. But I live abroad and it lets me quickly communicate with family and friends back home.

Anyway, I am pregnant - 19 weeks. Not everyone back home knows about this as I would like to tell people personally when I visit in July. Last night I was idly googling baby names to find out origins/meanings etc of a few I quite like. This morning I logged onto FB and noticed a few comments so I checked to see what they had commented on, and it was a thingy saying that I had been looking up a certain baby name. There were a few comments speculating as to whether I had some news to share.

Now, I didn't click on any FB links on any website, didn't log in to any site, didn't authorise anything, as far as I know, and my FB account is fairly secure, I thought.

So, I am feeling quite cross that FB has 'found out' what I googled and has taken it upon itself to post it! AIBU? And how did this happen?

God, thats scarey. Orwellian in fact.

God, that's a bit scary. Have a look at your settings - you must have something turned on in fb (every time they do an upgrade, they seem to reset the security to bugger all IME) and turn everything off.

And congratulations :)

That is scary. I would be totally embarassed if facebook found out what i search for! Congrats on baby :)

It's Google - they are trying to become Microsoft/msn and get themselves so entrenched in people's business lives that they can't do without it. Haven't you ever noticed, if you read a thread here and click a link to amazon or pedlar's or somewhere, your FB adverta will change to offer you whatever was in that link. Amazon offered me size 8 maxi dresses for months after I looked at one someone posted here . "They" link everything we do online now and now all sorts of things about us, or think they do, because they can't ever know WHY we click a particular link.

It cant do that unless you were logged into google and facebook I think. It cant just decide to post anything. It might be facebook but you still need to click on a "post" button.

that is not good at all!!

how does fb get away with this crap?

You must have clicked some sort of link or 'like' or something like that.

Go through your security settings and check the 'applications' bit and the 'publish to my wall' settings.

Oh my word FB scares me more every day - seriously planning on closing account. Mine reads my Gmail (not address book even, actual emails) - I don't know how, nor am I aware of ever giving it permission to. I know this because several times potential friends have been suggested to me where it has been immediately obvious to both of us that the only possible way it could have detected any connection is because we have exchanged emails.

Oh and every time I go the Tripadvisor now I get told where my FB friends are planning hols to, and the other day went to random site which had me 'signed in' through my FB account. All of this despite never being logged in to FB at the time and never using the 'keep me signed in' option.

I'm sure there'll be people telling me that there's some ways of opting out of some of this but I don't know about it, I've never given my consent for any of this and I don't see why the onus should be on me to find out how to excape it.

A similar thing happened to me in that I was looking at sofas one day and then I logged into Ebay and all the pop up adverts on ebay were for sofas. The next day I was looking at dresses and when I logged into ebay later on all the pop ups were for dresses. There's definitely sharing of info going on!
Very intrusive imo.

Note to self: Don't shop for dildos online because next day everyone on facebook will know!

Hmmpf. I have now deleted all but about 3 or 4 apps.

I suppose I must have clicked on a FB button somehow, although I don't know how as mostly I was googling exactly what I wanted (eg 'Penelope baby name meaning') and then I just clicked on whatever website google came up with, read it without clicking about, and closed it again.

I did have a baby name app on FB from when I was pregnant with DD, so I suppose I might have gone to that website. App deleted now.

I don't know about opting out. But a lot of people get stuff like this because they've allowed it without realising.

Also, apps your friends use can also access some of your information, and could be using that to target you with advertising etc.

Be careful what you click on and agree to - typically Birthday/anniversary apps that Friends want to add you to, See who's been viewing your profile (they can't they just want you to let their app access your stuff), and outrageous embarassing/titilating video links (bet this girl wishes she wasn't caught on camera UNLUCKY, that sort of thing). But anything else too if you're not sure about what it is.

Clear out the apps you have installed now and again. Go to Privacy, Websites and apps.

On this page too you can select what bits of your profile your friends can share with apps. Worth doing things that are personal like birthdays.

I don't use FB any more, but every time I google something it comes up on other pages I use. Everyone is being 'watched' and they know everything about you!

I do log into google. I shall not, from now on. Thanks for that info.

If you put pictures up of your family etc on FB, be aware that, no matter what your settings are, people who are friends of anyone you tag in a photo can see that photo too, and can comment on it/like etc. Go to Privacy again, and click on Custom. Untick the box next to Friends of those tagged.

While you're in there make sure that either Friends or Custom are selected. Many people (mostly younger users) leave this open on public.

You need to check your privacy settings. Go to the arrow in the top right of the screen, next to 'Home'. Click on 'Privacy settings'. Scroll down to 'Ads, Apps and Websites' and click on 'edit settings'. Scroll down to 'Instant personalisation' and click on 'edit settings'. It comes up with a presentation called 'Understanding Instant Personalisation'. Click on 'Close', then you are left with a page which explains it. At the bottom of this is a box entitled 'Enable instant personalisation on partner websites' and make sure it is UNticked. That might stop stuff you look at on the web from coming up on facebook. This is a useful link too: www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/facebook-instant-personalization-how-to-disable-it-and-why/8006

My privacy settings are really quite tight, oddly enough. I fiddle with them regularly as I have a lot of pics of DD on FB.

I think it was the logging into google thing that screwed me.

Thanks for all the advice.

On my explorer if I go to tools there is a thing I can click to do private browsing - never used as only looked due to this threat. Think it might be explorer as well as facebook out to out us with our searching habits.

If you stay logged in to FB, it will monitor your activity on every site you visit, via your browser. You need to log out!
Google do it too, you can get round this by using incognito mode in chrome browser.

Every time you log out of Facebook you need to clear your history which will delete all cookies, or else Facebook will follow you around even if you aren't logged in. It's a nasty thing. I don't like it!