Facebook Users Can No Longer Opt Out From Being Used In Facebook Ads

Jan 05

All Facebook: Facebook Users Can No Longer Opt Out From Being Used In Facebook Ads

Last July there was a mini-firestorm after a user found an ad which was using his wife’s photo in a dating advertisement. While the original story was a big miscommunication, as the ad was from a third-party ad network, Facebook does put user photos in some advertisements. Previously, users could opt-out of having their image and name used within Facebook advertisements show to their friends, however the specific privacy settings page which used to allow users to opt-out of having their information used in ads no longer exists.

Part of last year’s firestorm revolved around being able to opt-out of being displayed within advertisements. At the time, DownloadSquad published detailed instructions about how to opt out of the ads. While those settings existed under the old privacy settings, they no longer appear to exist which means users can no longer opt-out of being used in Facebook ads. While this may be an error by Facebook, it’s a pretty significant oversight considering the buzz and policy changes which resulted from the DownloadSquad article.

So what do these ads look like? I’ve posted a sample advertisement off to the right. Back in 2007, William McGeveran of Harvard Law suggested that the social advertisements were actually illegal. Since the original firestorm last year, Facebook since disabled the ability for third-party advertisers (specifically on the Facebook Platform) to display user photos within advertisements. The net result has been a decrease in application display ad click through rates.

Users now have an increased level of privacy though and there’s little chance that a user’s image will show up in a random advertisement. As for Facebook ads, users names and images can theoretically still be used and users are no longer able to opt out. While the most recent social ads don’t appear to use profile images, your name can still be used within advertisements. While having your name show up is not as shocking as seeing your profile image in a dating advertisement, users should be able to choose whether or not their name is used in an ad.

While the information may be publicly accessible (for example, you can’t hide those Pages you are a fan of), it doesn’t mean I want that information to randomly show up in an ad. Do you think it matters if Facebook uses your name in an advertisement that your friend sees? Does it make a difference if that information is already publicly accessible?

-Ads Opt Out Gone-