> Facebook knows more about its users because users tell it about themselves
I'd be surprised if Google doesn't know more about its users than Facebook. Google (theoretically) has access to its users' email, physical locations, browsing history, and more.
And search ads remain dominant for one time, high value purchases (think insurance or a mortgage).
And Facebook knows where I actually go based on check ins. My hobbies and interest, the movies I watched, etc. People tell Facebook what they are doing. Besides people don’t use email for personal communication as much as they use apps like Messenger and WhatsApp.
For high value purchases like a mortgage, wouldn’t better targeting be by advertising on a site like Zillow?
Google knows all that things too, without you having to expressly tell them.
Where have you been? You are constantly tracked if you have an android device. (not sure whether it also works for iOS with google maps on). No need to check in.
Hobbies and interest - search history.
The amount of granular information that Google could potentially have on an individual person is terrifying. The search history alone is effectively a peek into your stream of consciousness.
How does Google know my birthday, exactly how old I am, the events I said I was interested in, everytime I change jobs, my relationship status, the college I went to, where my wife and I went to see a show the other night, whether I am single, married, or somewhere in between? This is the kind of data that people tell FB about explicitly. Google only knows that have a vague interest in running. FB could have a better idea of when I go running because I might have posted about it or used one of the social apps that automatically post to FB.
Google can only “peek”, FB is having an active conversation.
Google doesn’t have the level of data for iOS devices on locations. iOS users in western countries are far more statistically valuable to advertisers than Android users.
I'll strictly speak about Google. (and assume that you are a regular internet user, who has gmail, and doens't go to great lengths to mask their activities)
If they wanted to be really invasive, they could get a lot. Not saying that they are doing it, but they can
1) Birthday - on every birthday, there are a bunch of random sites where you have an account that send you congratulations.
2) How old - beyond patterning (which can get you within a fairly narrow range), I am sure that most people have received or sent an email which states their date of birth - whether in the text, or as part of a form
3) Job changes - in any european country, you get your employment contract via both mail and email. (and btw...this means they have your salary too)
4) College you went to - if you already had gmail while at university, they have you. if you got it afterwards, they probably saw the "alumnus" emails
5) Relationship status - this is arguably trickier. There's no "hard" proof. I think FB has the edge here, though not as large as it used to be (I remember that 10 years ago everyone had their status on FB. now it's almost no one, but it's irrelevant, because they can look at your photos, and whether you mention "gf/bf/wife" etc.
6) Running - again, FB have the edge in determining how much/where etc. But google know you are running, because they have your emails from the apps to which you subscribed.
Might I ask what demographic group you are in? I personally am in the "founding generation of FB" (now a early 30s engineer in the US) and it's obvious to me that at least the people I know aren't giving data that much to FB. While plenty lurk or use messenger, quick sampling shows < 10% of my friends update more than once a month.
So to answer your questions:
> How does Google know my birthday
> exactly how old I am
I'll give you FB has exactness better specified, though I question how relevant it is. Regardless, gmail could easily figure this out by looking at inbound emails. Also linkedin public profiles.
> the events I said I was interested in
Given the lack of updates on FB, search is a much better proxy for this.
> everytime I change jobs
Email + linked in
> my relationship status
Search and email is going to be a very good proxy here, possibly better if FB updates are stale.
> where my wife and I went to see a show the other night
Maps. (And I'd guess usage of maps far outweighs people who voluntary tell FB)
> Google doesn’t have the level of data for iOS devices on locations. iOS users in western countries are far more statistically valuable to advertisers than Android users.
Yes, but number of Google-Android users, let alone users who use Google products, probably far outweighs frequent FB updaters.
Might I ask what demographic group you are in? I personally am in the "founding generation of FB" (now a early 30s engineer in the US) and it's obvious to me that at least the people I know aren't giving data that much to FB. While plenty lurk or use messenger, quick sampling shows < 10% of my friends update more than once a month.
We aren’t talking anecdotally about “people you know”. Facebook has more than 2 billion daily active users.
I'll give you FB has exactness better specified, though I question how relevant it is. Regardless, gmail could easily figure this out by looking at inbound emails. Also linkedin public profiles.
Google claims it doesn’t use email for targeting ads and how will it correlate LinkedIn profiles with Google users? I doubt that MS owned LinkedIn is going to share the data. LinkedIn only has 260 million active monthly users.
Given the lack of updates on FB, search is a much better proxy for this.
Lack of updated by your circle...not based on published numbers.
Search and email is going to be a very good proxy here, possibly better if FB updates are stale.
How many people use email in 2018 for personal communications?
> We aren’t talking anecdotally about “people you know”.
Agreed, I'm raising anecdotes as I haven't seen any data users frequently update.
Quick search shows https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/. If you do the math, there's about 1.3 status updates/week/active-user. That's not a lot of voluntary data being given per user and I suspect this is subject to a huge power law where median is far less than 1.
> how will it correlate LinkedIn profiles with Google users?
Profiles are public and picked up by Google search. Correlation is pretty easy to do - simple method is real name match + geo-ip.
> How many people use email in 2018 for personal communications?
I don't have solid data; do you? That said, I and almost everyone I know uses email as the primary means for long-form (i.e. anything that requires more than a sentence) personal communication.
(I feel like we're talking past each other due to the lack of data + being in different circles)
> People only use maps when they don’t know where they are going. People will check in a lot more.
Source on both pieces of data?
I'm skeptical as:
1. Maps is valuable for traffic-adjusted navigation.
2. Maps has 1B montly active users
3. Check-ins are rare. (looking at my feed - I can't find numbers)
How much personal email are people really doing in 2018 that’s not not either bulk email or business to business (meaning Google wouldn’t have visibility), etc?
I'd be surprised if Google doesn't know more about its users than Facebook. Google (theoretically) has access to its users' email, physical locations, browsing history, and more.
And search ads remain dominant for one time, high value purchases (think insurance or a mortgage).