Facebook’s Price Hike (and How to Opt Out)

Facebook LogoThis was originally posted to Facebook – now I am posting a summary post here, as it relates to a previous post I’ve made on this same issue on the G+ service (“Shared Endoresements”):

As reported in the NYT over the weekend, it seems like Facebook is about to expand the use of personal “likes” and endorsements on ads it shows to other users. If you “like” something, your image could appear next to an advertiser’s message if one of your friends sees that ad – and now they are planning to extend this practice to ads placed on sites outside of the Facebook site itself. As far as I can tell, you can opt out of this by visiting your Facebook settings, clicking on “Ads” on the left-hand navigation bar and clicking “Edit” to set the setting to “no-one” for both “Third Party Sites” and “Ads and Friends.” Personally I have chosen to opt out as I am not comfortable with my image being displayed along side of an advertiser’s message just because I happen to have “liked” a company or product in the past. I’m also not happy with the lack of communication about this new service from Facebook to its users. Google have rolled this out as well on Google+ as “Shared Endorsements” and I’ve also opted out of that – but at least they offered some clear instructions on how to opt out. For this, I’ve got to read about it in The New York Times? (http://nyti.ms/1bKYAxB)

The subtext here about teens being more susceptible to social ads is a bit disturbing. What Google and Facebook are doing is taking control of how your image (your face) is used by them online, starting with kids because their personal privacy walls are lower. They want the “new normal” to be that your face is used by them to promote advertisers products and services, with no quid pro quo for you other than that you get to continue to use their service. As I wrote about on Google+ (http://goo.gl/1wtNNO), this is effectively a price hike for users. You give more (of your data and your rights to how your own image is used) and you get the same service in return. Thanks but no thanks.

My original post on Facebook is here: https://www.facebook.com/dappelquist/posts/10152050209765120

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