Facebook is being sneaky again. Tsk. Tsk.
Working in an agency I am a bit on the fence about the latest backlash that Facebook has been getting. I had been given the heads-up that Facebook has now put together a new “Facebook Ads” feature. The site states:
“Facebook occasionally pairs advertisements with relevant social actions from a user’s friends to create Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads make advertisements more interesting and more tailored to you and your friends. These respect all privacy rules.”
The issue I am struggling with is: It’s great to be able to tailor advertising as specific as possible, while on the flip side, how much collection of personal information is too much? Is it made even more suspicious because the opt out option nicely tucked away? It’s under: Settings > Privacy Settings > Facebook Ads > Appearance-None. Definitely not a section I visit regularly.
So what is your take? Will you allow the ads or opt out?
dougbrowncreative
July 27, 2009 1:46 pmAs an adguy, I figure I’ll learn something by watching the thing develop. But Facebook is soooooo 2008 anyway. The kids are finding new places to hide out already.
matthew
July 27, 2009 4:17 pmI honestly don’t mind it right now. The only options for this are to “Only my friends” and “No one”. Since Facebook already spams my profile picture and pictures of me to all of my friends anyway, what’s the problem if they are using them for advertising. When you post an image to Facebook you “…grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content…”. They’re using the resources available to them by turning user-generated content in to specifically targeted ad campaigns.
redfelt13
July 27, 2009 9:15 pmGood comments. It seems that Facebook has been playing around with getting the legal changed to allow them the license to use any content. There was the initial backlash a few months ago when it was introduced, then quickly retracted. I guess the wording has been massaged and slipped back in.
As for Doug’s comments, sure the kids are likely skipping town already, but they leftovers are the middle-aged + folks that are less accepting to information sharing. They are the ones that will freak out and stir up the pot.
Lets see how it goes!