# Facebook recipe videos asking for your city? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 30, 2022, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-recipe-videos-asking-for-your-city/977354 "2022-12-30T20:11:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2022, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-recipe-videos-asking-for-your-city/977354/1 "2022-12-30T20:11:29Z")
Occasionally I’ll watch a recipe video on Facebook. (About half the time they’re pretty lame.) Every one of them asks, ‘Tell me the city you’re watching from, so I can send you special greetings.’ OK, I get that if you reply then they know you’re a live fish. And I guess that if they know your city, they can target ads at you. But is there some reason I’m not thinking of, why they would want viewers’ cities? I’m sure it’s some sort of scam, but it seems to just be Phase 1. [FWIW, these videos all seem to be of non-U.S. origin.]\ ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2022, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-recipe-videos-asking-for-your-city/977354/2 "2022-12-30T20:23:11Z")
The only thing I can think of is they’re fishing for data points. Probably tasked only with asking that question, whilst many others have similar jobs with different questions. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2022, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-recipe-videos-asking-for-your-city/977354/3 "2022-12-30T20:27:02Z")
That’s pretty clever. NB: I do not tell them where I’m watching from. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2022, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-recipe-videos-asking-for-your-city/977354/4 "2022-12-30T20:28:50Z")
I never watch videos on Facebook. Is the video asking you to type in the name of a city, or is the video asking for access to your personal data so that it can get your city (in other words is it trying to get to all of your personal info)? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2022, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-recipe-videos-asking-for-your-city/977354/5 "2022-12-30T20:35:28Z")
They ask you to post where you’re watching from. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2022, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-recipe-videos-asking-for-your-city/977354/6 "2022-12-31T01:36:49Z")
The more comments, the more “popularity”, hence revenue. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2023, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-recipe-videos-asking-for-your-city/977354/7 "2023-01-03T18:25:43Z")
If that’s what you’re asked to do, then the main point is to generate user activity in the form of comments. Ad-displaying algorithms take such activity as a proxy for user interest and will calibrate ad prices accordingly. Which means the originators of the video don’t really care if you answer truthfully. All they want you to do is leave a comment, _any_ comment, and they’re asking for your city because they think you’re more likely to relate to that and, hence, do it.