Social media marketing: Shades of the NSA?

Bob Meyer was doing the dishes Monday morning when he looked out the window and marveled at the sunrise. He snapped a photo - tangerines and russets over his gray-and-white tool shed. He posted it on Facebook.

He's sharing a lot of nature shots since moving this fall to Charlottesville, Va. The former Merck exec is teaching at the University of Virginia.

Two hours later, an ad appeared on his Facebook page.

For a gray-and-white tool shed.

Creepy or coincidence?

Doc Meyer votes creepy.

"We worry about the NSA?" his post began. "I didn't mention sheds, I didn't search sheds . . . nothing. What shows up on my sponsored links two hours later? An ad for Waterloo storage sheds with a shed that looks almost exactly like the one we have."

So is Facebook scraping images in the photos we post now in hope of letting its partners sell us stuff?

Jeff Gibbard, president of True Voice Media in Philadelphia, votes coincidence.

More likely, he said, Meyer was targeted because of his demographic information - his age, his sex, his location, his "likes." "It's possible they know he likes outdoor activities and so they targeted that ad to him."

Which just happened to be for a shed.

Facebook's Elisabeth Diana said the same thing. The social media giant says it does not forward information about specific users to advertisers. It bundles people like Meyer who share age, income, and interest in things like gardening and home improvement.

And, it just so happens, sheds.

"This was purely a coincidence," she said.

Meyer responded skeptically: "That's one hell of a coincidence."