We noticed a little change to Facebook that may have slipped past you. Sometime in the past few days, Facebook added “advertise” to the drop-down menu where you access your account and privacy settings:
Hmm. Where did you come from?
It’s a tiny change, sure, but it’s one of many small things that Facebook is doing after the IPO to ramp up advertising efforts (and thus revenues). Speaking of advertising revenues, Facebook just settled a class action privacy lawsuit around its Sponsored Stories ads, which are the ones you see in your sidebar featuring pictures of your friends who’ve liked certain companies or pages, like this one:
Image: Mashable
There is currently no way to opt out of having your photo, name, and the fact that you liked a page used in Sponsored Stories. The plaintiffs argued that Facebook couldn’t use their images in advertising without their consent (and they’re right–it’s a legal principle called the right of publicity).
This lawsuit could have dealt a big blow to Facebook, which depends heavily on advertising for revenues, especially because Sponsored Stories are reportedly 46% more effective than standard Facebook ads and thus an appealing option for advertisers.
It’s unclear how Facebook will handle Sponsored Stories after this settlement, but our guess is that they’ll change things so you’ll have to expressly agree for Facebook to use you in advertising. Which is how it should have been in the first place.
How do you feel about Facebook using your image in advertising?
Yet one more reason why I never uploaded my image to FB. And, thanks to stories like this one, never will.
That was very smart of you. Rumor has it they’re looking to buy Face.com and really beef up their whole photos & facial recognition strategy, too.
Isn’t it illegal to hack my computer by putting stuff on or taking information off without my express permission?
What are you talking about? Facebook?
I don’t want my image being used for advertising that is why I never have posted a picture of how I really look, because of sneaky things like this. I hope the staff from Facebook changes their mind about all of this nonsense!
I hope so too, but until then, it’s up to you to take as much control back over your personal info as you can. We’re here to help!
I have ads on Facebook blocked, and haven’t trusted Facebook since they set everyone’s privacy settings to public while tweaking their systems. In any case, displaying someone’s face and name in an advertisement is an egregious violation of privacy.
Yep, and the court seems to have agreed with you. Facebook probably would have lost a lot of money if they hadn’t settled. A lot MORE money, I should say.
This post reminds me just how valuable privacy is in digital times!
I don’t care much for the photo tagging feature on Facebook either. Users should be able to decide where and how they want show up in the Facebook ecosystem.
Over time, Facebook has pushed its users to reveal more and more personal info. There’s been a real shift from private to public. Back in 2004 when they started, their privacy policy assumed that people wanted their info to stay private by default. Now, the complete opposite is true.