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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 ...
So download AdBlock Plus, if you really can’t bear to look at ads on ad-driven sites. But don’t pretend that using publicly-available information for marketing is some sort of horrible injustice.
All of the internet is invasive. If you choose to be on it, don’t expect privacy. If you want to keep yourself “hidden”, don’t give your real info.
You can have a FB account, actually several of them. Just don’t sign up with your real info on it.
I have become “friends” with many a Conservative because of FB. The more info I have, the more informed I am.
Create an account using a fake name. Game users have been doing that for a while to get bonuses for their games.
Libs Suk at Farmville sent you a request......
Moooshell Ohmyfatass accepted your request and sent a special gift back!
You’d be surprised how many people have their date of birth listed....then do silly games like I’m from ______, pet’s name, etc.....all info to crack codes of security
Very creepy but then, who sees advertisements? I haven’t seen one in years.
I have AdBlock Plus.
Amazon does something similar. A few weeks ago I searched for convection ovens, and ever since then I have received multiple emails from Amazon advertising different convection ovens they have for sale. Yes, they track your searches.
It’s not creepy, it’s demographic analysis. Advertisers have been doing it for ages. Why are soap operas called soap operas? Because their original sponsors were soap companies that knew the prime audience for day time radio dramas were housewives who were also spending time cleaning. It’s the same thing, all advertising is placed based on data that tells them people that like whatever they’re putting their ad in have a higher than normal chance of being interested in the product being advertised. Facebook ads just get the extra advantage of being place in a medium where the audience actually TELLS Facebook they are interested in the product.
Technically they don’t know who you are, they’re just able to redirect data out of your account. Same mechanism that allows you to share a youtube video direct into FB would allow them to poll your friends list and compare to their history to see if any of them have viewed it already, maybe even shared it. It’s all from that account linking, you volunteered for it, you just probably didn’t think through the implications when you let that site know you were on FB.
There’s a huge gap between estimating demographics of the typical soap opera viewer and harvesting personal, private information that was gained solely for the purpose of participating in a web forum. No personal data should ever be harvested without express, written consent.
Irrelevancy pings.
If you fudge everything, um, who is going to want to be friends with some anonymously "fudged" profile? How would your friends know it was you for sure? Seems to me there would be no point to what you suggest.
No need to ping be again on this or any other thread.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
I friend them, that’s how. I tell them my purpose for not wanting my true info out there and also give stories that we only know about.
That is how they know who I am and understand my “fudginess” regarding my true info.
It also keeps anyone I DON’T want finding me, finding me.
The only “gap” is about 70 years worth of technology. The concept is the same, the goal is the same, all that’s really changed is the tool. They aren’t harvesting private day, they’re harvesting data you PUBLICLY and VOLUNTARILY shared. If you don’t want advertisers to use your FB likes to target their ads to you then don’t HAVE ANY. People did consent, they consented once by accepting the terms of service which explicitly discuss data sharing, and the consented again by providing FB with the information.
Let's take a poll as to how many people actually read the 10-page long, cryptic "terms of service" for facebook or most other web sites out there (not to mention the disclaimers written for software licensing). Problem is, it is written in such a manner that it deliberately dissuades most people from even trying to read and understand what's written. And it isn't written in plain, common verbage either.
If people can claim to not understand the terms of their mortgage, which are spelled out in extremely simplified form due to federal disclosure regulations, then how can they be expected to understand the finer points of a "terms of use" agreement written in legalese?
Point being, most people have no idea as to what they are consenting. That situation is, of course, by design.
Interesting, which add ons, if I may ask.
Anyone who has a facebook account should know to check the address bar, and make sure it say https, and not just http. Yes, the s stands for security.
Firefox + Adblock + Flashblock + Noscript = surfing bliss
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