That Escalated Quickly
I know social media can be nefarious. It is a mystery how companies use your information, and share it with others. Case in point:
I was exploring bicycling groups near me, using Strava. There is the Gravel bikers group in Santa Cruz, and the competitive road cycling team in San Jose.
One of the groups I ran across is training for the annual AIDS/LifeCycle ride between San Francisco and Los Angeles. They also welcome cyclists who aren’t partaking in the ride, and just want to go out on practice rides. It looked interesting.
I clicked on the group’s website, a Facebook group, and joined them on Strava, as it looks like a good not-all-too-competitive group.
Shortly thereafter, while scrolling through Twitter (note: not Facebook nor Strava), I was served up a promoted tweet for HIV medication. Wow! That escalated quickly simply from joining a cycling group. Does everybody who Rides For The Cure suffer from diabetes or breast cancer themselves? I think not. Not everybody pouring a bucket of ice over them is an ALS patient, are they?
The link was obvious: AIDS ride -> HIV medicine. Yet, it was concerning how this link was shared across social media platforms in a heartbeat. Which other companies have been served this information and to what purpose?