It’s Amazing the sponsored scams or fake stories I see on Facebook on a daily basis
See attached of ads what I received on Facebook
If I report any scams or fake stories to Facebook , 99% of the time they say it doesn’t go against the terms and conditions.
Why do we and the Australian government accept these financial scams,Fake stories or web site scaring you with fake virus,warning etc etc . and not do much about it.
Good grief. Set your Facebook feeds settings.
Feeds fine
It’s just their sponsors
Even if the feeds are not set properly
It’s not ok to get profit from sponsors who mislead or scam people.
Weird thing it shows it more on a windows computer than using a tablet on the same account
It is not just financial scams. I have also reported several ads that claim their product is ‘approved’ by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and make references to varius ‘research’. The ads also contain ‘customer endorsements’ in the comments section. For fun, I have sometimes contacted the advetisier saying how interested i am in their product and can they give me the research they say supports their claims because I realllllly want to know more, can they tell me the TGA approval number so I can see the TGA report etc etc Of course there is never any answer. Like you when I report these scams to Facebook, I get the same answer - there is no violation of their guidelines. Moral? Apply for nothing, order nothing, respond to nothing advertised or sold on Facebook.
Noneof this is ever going to stop. If you can’t just move past, get FBPurity (https://www.fbpurity.com/) which I have found very effective at reducing the dross. Not to nothing (I wish) but at least to make FB more bearable.
That said, its only available on desktop computers.
I started using Brave as my browser (on ipad) a few weeks back and its been a relief to be able to see youtube without ads and to do facebook with fewer ads. Sadly, the sponsored ads are still there because they are posted as “news” in the feed. I just scroll past most of the time but once more am rapidly approaching leaving.
Changing settings doesn’t do anything now. I used to ONLY view my FB feeds as a way of avoiding ads. A few weeks ago my feeds started showing ads. My viewing habits haven’t changed, and I have never clicked on nor ‘liked’ ads. I’ve gone through all the relevant settings to do what I can to avoid ads, yet still they persist.
Something has changed on the platform recently such that ads can no longer be avoided. This is yet another nail in the coffin of Farcebook for me. It won’t take much more before I close my account completely (the only reason I’ve stayed on it thus far is because I have friends and family overseas) and I’m actively searching for an alternative.
It’s not really ads that is a problem
Its the sponsored Scam ads trying to trick you to get your money
or fake popups that your infected with a virus
or fake news reports pinching news companies logos etc
As tons of people get scammed every day
all this that meta is proffiting from
And the Australian government let it happen.
As I mention, it’s not the ads is the problem.
It’s the type of fake/scam/false ads that is posted that been approved by meta
And the problem is if you click on a scam advertisement, Facebook records this as data to push similar advertisements in the future. We have an elderly neighbour who has clicked on scam/sham product advertisements, now their feed contains a lot of scam and sham product advertisements. I have to keep reminding them to ignore Facebook advertisements. In the past they have been conned as they have bought a few things thinking they were genuine products…only to be scammed.
From howstuffworks, some advice that may help reduce the ads that are seen. While it won’t stop all ads, it will allow some control.
You can’t opt out of seeing Facebook ads completely, but you can opt out of ads based on your browsing habits. To opt out, do the following:
Log on to your Facebook account, and click on “Settings.” Currently, you access this by clicking on the three dots below your cover photo. Go to “Profile and Tagging Settings” which will take you to “Settings.”
Scroll down to the section in “Settings” marked “Ads.” You’ll see a number of ad preferences.
Under “Ad Preferences,” you’ll see three categories for “Advertisers,” “Ad Topics” and “Ad Settings.” “Advertisers” has a list of companies that are currently showing you ads on Facebook. There are options to hide these ads by clicking on “Hide Ads.”
“Ad Topics” allows you to see fewer ads in certain categories, for example, pets, parenting or politics. Click on “Show Fewer” next to each category.
“Ad Settings” serves you ads based on your personal information (education, relationship status, etc.). These settings can be adjusted to reduce the amount of personalized ads you get, but not the number of ads you see. Just toggle off each setting (for instance, click on “Data about your activity from partners” and scroll to “Use Data from Partners” and toggle it off by moving the button from the blue setting to the gray.)
There are also browser extensions/addons that will block ads but may reduce the functionality of Facebook.
AdBlockPlus is one addon that may help. Another is uBlock Origin, selection of the blocking lists that are available can help target more or less of the annoying stuff while helping to keep Facebook a bit more usable.
As mentioned in other posts, fbpurity works OK until Facebook changes their code to outwit it, again and again and again…
Mastodon? (https://joinmastodon.org/)
Diaspora? (https://diasporafoundation.org/)
Vero? (VERO™)
None of these are perfect but you can see if any meet your needs for you and your family and friends.
If specifically for your needs, in Mastodon you can create your own “server” and let your family and friends know.
As you say, changing the Ad settings limits the types of ads shown, though does nothing to reduce the frequency - I have deselected everything and still get (random) ads. I have AdGuard installed, which I thought was working before as I saw no ads in my FB feeds until recently (still with AdGuard running).
What has given me pause for thought is this: a few weeks ago I had knee pain, from horseriding, and was using Safari on iPad to search for relevant information on knee pain in equestrians. I’ve never had knee pain before, and wanted helpful tips on preventing it - of course I would see my GP if it persisted. A few days later, FB (which I access via Safari rather than the app) was showing me ads about knee pain. I’m sceptical that this was random; at the risk of sounding paranoid, it felt as though FB could ‘see’ my browser search history.
I’m really not comfortable with this idea…
Thank you - I will investigate those options.
It probably could, since many sites install farcebook cookies on your computer.
Thank you. That feels like an invasion of privacy and I’ll check cookies if I can figure out which ones to remove.
There is a Firefox one called Facebook Container that stops Facebook from gathering information from sites you visit that have Facebook, Messenger and Instagram cookies etc in them.
Some advice that may help
Thank you very much!
I use that, but FB cookies still appear, which I regularly clear out, along with most of the other cookies I don’t need (but marketing companies want), keeping the ones for logins etc. I don’t use FB, so they are probably of limited use to them anyway.
They gather a lot of data about non Facebook users, and if someone mentions you or tags you in Facebook, then it will include a lot more personal info. They sell this non Facebook user data as well, they monetise everything.
“If you’re not paying for the product, you’re the product.”
