Facebook looks to cash in on user data
Posted on 04/17/2011 9:17:09 AM PDT by STARWISE
Profiles, status updates and messages all include a mother lode of voluntarily provided information. The social media site is using it to help advertisers find exactly who they want to reach. Privacy watchdogs are aghast.
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Julee Morrison has been obsessed with Bon Jovi since she was a teenager.
So when paid ads for fan sites started popping up on the 41-year-old Salt Lake City blogger's Facebook page, she was thrilled. She described herself as a "clicking fool," perusing videos and photos of the New Jersey rockers.
Then it dawned on Morrison why all those Bon Jovi ads appeared every time she logged on to the social networking site.
"Facebook is reading my profile, my interests, the people and pages I am 'friends' with, and targeting me," Morrison said. "It's brilliant social media but it's absolutely creepy."
For Facebook users, the free ride is over.
*snip*
Now the Palo Alto company is looking to cash in on this mother lode of personal information by helping advertisers pinpoint exactly whom they want to reach. This is no idle boast. Facebook doesn't have to guess who its users are or what they like. Facebook knows, because members volunteer this information freely — and frequently — in their profiles, status updates, wall posts, messages and "likes."
It's now tracking this activity, shooting online ads to users based on their demographics, interests, even what they say to friends on the site — sometimes within minutes of them typing a key word or phrase.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I bet there isn’t a single WWII partisan, or child of a partisan on Facebook.
Just never understood the attraction of Facebook.....
It’s called cookies (tracking cookies) and your IP address, everywhere you go on the internet you get your “local” weather report, local ads, . No doubt Facebook is doing it deliberately, that’s why it’s advisable to stay away from it.
Free ride? What, Facebook is charging now? No, wait, they are selling ads targeted at people’s interests? Oh the humanity !!! ...magritte
Happens all the time. Not just with Facebook. I don’t belong to any of those kinds of sites, but I do belong to a few guitar forums. Whenever I go to a news link, say Fox, there’s always a guitar ad up near the top.
Most of them probably couldn’t see the screen.
Just kidding...
like sheep being rounded up for the fleecing..
social media networking, my arse.
Further proof I’m not missing anything by not having a FB account.
That is why I have been using The newest version of Firefox, with a couple of ad ons that block the tracking, instead of Internet Explorer.
And what’s wrong with targeted advertising, exactly? Is it really any different from the Freepathon ads that appeal to conservative values and policies?
Ping!
No kidding.
Well the FReepathon ads don’t follow me and appear on my weather page or other web sites I like to visit. I chose to come to FR and expect to see them.
I love my FB. It’s become one of my “Conservative activist” sites.
There are so many ads on the side; however, I NEVER click on them.
For me, FB is just another way of getting the Conservative voice out there.
I post things from FB here and also post FR things on my FB.
One bit of advise.....if you sign up for FB DON’T put your real info on there. Fudge it.
Also, for any FB users, if your FB heading just says http and not https, you need to correct that.
Install Ghostery.
I was commenting on Youtube and made a mistake on my log on name..it corrected itself as a question “do you mean...?”
This is scary invasive stuff.
Not only that...
A few times, I have been browsing through other non-Facebook websites.
Then I notice an ad that has lists of Facebook users or whatever who like or dislike something.
And many times, people I have as friends on FB show up in the list.
The only way I can explain it (kind of a guess, but probably not far from the mark) is that whoever the site is that I am browsing, they have some Java script or whatever that is able to steal or peek at any FB cookies I have on my machine.
So once you have an FB cookie on your machine, every other site you go to has the potential of KNOWING EXACTLY WHO I AM!
That’s not good...
Exactly. Why place your real life in there? I don’t get it.
signed max americana: CIA super spy, SI swimsuit edition photographer and ghost editor for Penthouse magazine.
It is so bad that I only see conservatives adds on facebook now. You follow Sara Palin and people like Ann Coulter just show up. And no Democrats.
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