Facebook privacy invasion
p2pnet news | Advertising:- “Now that Facebook has unveiled plans to target advertisements by injecting them into its members’ conversations, the popular online hangout must persuade its users to embrace the initiative.”
Embrace the initiative? Allow themselves to be totally Zuckered, might be a better way of putting it.
But “initiative” is how Associated Press sums up Facebook’s latest project created to cash in on members’ loyalty.
With a $240 million Microsoft investment behind it, Facebook plans to give advertisers carte blanche to specifically target users based on what they and their friends buy and do online, and where they go.
That looks like a tall order, but if Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (right) and his friends have their way, it won’t be a problem because advertisers will be able to literally track Facebook denizens as they move around online, leaving a tasty, and highly exploitable, trail of personal data as they go.
Called Facebook Pages, the ad scam, “will let users interested in their brands interact directly with companies, who will in turn be able to gather valuable information about them,” says The Telegraph.
But what it all boils down to is: Facebook folks won’t be able to turn around without someone trailing them and trying to sell them something.
Among those lined up are Blockbuster, Coca-Cola, Microsoft and Sony, to date, says the story.
“Facebook is calling the system Social Ads, and there’s no opt-out,” says The Register., continuing, “According to reports, Zuckerberg did hint that if members kick up enough of a stink, as they did over privacy concerns last year, an escape route could be opened.”
A system of so-called Beacon applications, “will ask users to let Facebook track them outside the social network so it can know, and sell, more about them,” says the story.
For example, if you visited eBay via its sponsored Beacon application,details of your activities woujld be fed straight back to Facebook, “which would tell your friends about what you’re selling via the newsfeed”.
Nor is Facebook alone in mounting this mind-boggling privacy invasion.
MySpace has dreamed up a little something it’s calling HyperTargeting.
And lurking in the background - but only jjust - all the while are, of course, the likes of Google and Yahoo Google.
The web is becoming a dangerous place for anyone who values their privacy.
As p2pnet posted on Monday, “When it comes to online privacy, the majority of Americans have no idea what’s really going on, says a new academic study.
“Most of them believe privacy policies, ‘create strong rules against collection and disclosure of personal data,’ says the report, from the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication and UC-Berkeley Law’s Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic.
“But they’re wrong.”
Also See:
Associated Press - Facebook unveils ad targeting program, November 7, 2007
The Telegraph - Facebook finds new friends in Coke & Sony, November 7, 2007
The Register - Facebook mounts Tupperware-style ads push, November 7, 2007
HyperTargeting - MySpace: zeroing in on YOU, November 5, 2007
p2pnet - Online privacy: the myth November 5, 2007
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November 7th, 2007 at 8:19 am
this is why i have given up on facebook as many other applications this started off as a well meaning idea but as soon as it gets big and business men get in on the show it all becomes about the bottom line and shareholders. and the owner is quite happy to let this happen as he is set for life so could not give a f*** what happens.