I still think it was inaccuracy. Once I was bored enough to dig through all the ad settings. For those who don't know, there's a section called "interest settings" that's buried inside of "category settings" in ad preferences. "Interest settings" has a list of interests Facebook has generated based on your activity.
My list contained things like "Calvinism", "angels", "church growth strategies", "sermon topics", "contemporary Christian music", "Southern Baptist Convention", etc. Based on this list, a Baptist church which embraced Calvinism might think I would be a huge fan.
I've never once interacted with a FB post which talked about these things positively. Only from the critical groups. But the algorithms aren't sensitive enough to pick that up. Had the interests listed "News about Southern Baptist Convention" or "Critiques about SBC", then that would have been accurate. But simply listing "Southern Baptist Convention" mis-labels me as being positively interested in the subject and their churches. Same goes for the other topics. While the list is more or less neutral, it implies positive interest.
At any rate, FB gives you the option to delete these things from your interests list. I did so. Religious ads went away for a little while. They came back as soon as I interacted with one of my critical groups. Apparently, FB is keeping a shadow list of interests I cannot edit. Which is a shame. They should listen to me. I occasionally click the ads when they're nothing but Raspberry Pi accessories or art books.
My list contained things like "Calvinism", "angels", "church growth strategies", "sermon topics", "contemporary Christian music", "Southern Baptist Convention", etc. Based on this list, a Baptist church which embraced Calvinism might think I would be a huge fan.
I've never once interacted with a FB post which talked about these things positively. Only from the critical groups. But the algorithms aren't sensitive enough to pick that up. Had the interests listed "News about Southern Baptist Convention" or "Critiques about SBC", then that would have been accurate. But simply listing "Southern Baptist Convention" mis-labels me as being positively interested in the subject and their churches. Same goes for the other topics. While the list is more or less neutral, it implies positive interest.
At any rate, FB gives you the option to delete these things from your interests list. I did so. Religious ads went away for a little while. They came back as soon as I interacted with one of my critical groups. Apparently, FB is keeping a shadow list of interests I cannot edit. Which is a shame. They should listen to me. I occasionally click the ads when they're nothing but Raspberry Pi accessories or art books.