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If you have checked facebook status you might have seen something like “Facebook has agreed to let third party advertisers use your posted pictures without your permission.” and might end with “Help your friends…cut and paste this into your status.” Is this true? Would Facebook let their advertiser’s use user’s photos?
(Thank you xkcd!!)
There are even posts that address how to prevent your photos from being used on well known sites like About.com (http://personalweb.about.com/b/2009/07/26/keep-facebook-photos-out-of-ads.htm) or CBS News (http://cbs5.com/local/facebook.photos.ads.2.1100466.html). It wouldn’t be the first time Facebook has dove face first into a privacy grey area, with it’s Beacon <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beacon_(Facebook)) that let 3rd party sites broadcast what you were doing on other websites. It would make sense that same company would use users’ photos for advertisments on facebook.
According to Facebook’s own blog in a post entitled Debunking Rumors about Advertising and Photos Facebook staffers state that these claims are false and that they have “made no such change in our advertising policies”.
“The advertisements that started these rumors were not from Facebook but placed within applications by third parties. Those ads violated our policies by misusing profile photos, and we already required the removal of those deceptive ads from third-party applications before this rumor began spreading.”
In that same post they try to set the record straight and explain how they do use users’ photos in the advertisements on Facebook. Even the way Facebooks admits to using photos in their ads gives me pause.
“How We Use Photos
We’ve run advertisements from our own advertising system for more than a year that let your friends know if you have a direct connection with a product or service, in the same way that your friends learn through your News Feed if you’re connected with another friend or an organization’s Facebook Page. For example, if one of your friends becomes a fan of a Page, you may see an ad, like the one below, with your friend’s profile photo that indicates the action that friend has taken.” Facebook
This means that if you interact with a company or brand that advertises on Facebook, you become an unwitting spokes person for the product or service. For many of you who follow this podcast this is obvious. Facebook is an information service and it’s users submit their personal information so they can find and interact with friends. In a way you pay for your interactions on Facebook with the currency of your info.
For the majority of Facebooks user base this is probably a new concept. Most see Facebook as a walled garden where they can interact with friends and selected loved ones. They often don’t feel the need to hold back with their friends. That is until it gets more complicated and something they didn’t want out becomes public.
Background Music:
RJD2 - 2 More Dead
Built to Spill - Untrustable/Pt. 2
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