The New Facebook Ads - Another Privacy Debacle?

privacyprof writes "Facebook recently announced a new advertising scheme called 'Social Ads.' Instead of using celebrities to hawk products, it will use pictures of Facebook users. Facebook might be entering into another privacy debacle. The site assumes that if people rate products highly or write good things about a product then they consent to being used in an advertisement for it. Facebook doesn't understand that privacy amounts to much more than keeping secrets — it involves controlling accessibility to personal data. 'The use of a person's name or image in an advertisement without that person's consent might constitute a violation of the appropriation of name or likeness tort. According to the Restatement (Second) of Torts 652C: "One who appropriates to his own use or benefit the name or likeness of another is subject to liability to the other for invasion of his privacy."'"

Comments

Good link from Inquirer

[butlerdi]

Found a link in the comments under an Inq story ..... pretty interesting ... http://www.idkwtf.com/videos/latest-videos/truth-behind-facebook

Nope.

[Estanislao Mart�nez]

You have granted them a non-exclusive license to use any part or all of your content for any purpose they are so inclined to fulfill.

You've granted them a copyright license. A copyright license doesn't allow you to make use of a work when such use would otherwise be against the law. Notwithstanding the copyright license you grant by agreeing to the ToS, it is illegal to use somebody's name or likeness to promote a commercial service or product without their consent, a consent that you have not granted.

This is no different than if I took a photo of you where you are recognizable, licensed it to an advertising agency, and they printed it in an advertisement for Blockbuster. I, as the holder of the copyright on the picture of you, have the right to control who can use the picture for what. You, as the person being depicted in the picture, have the right to grant or deny permission to have your likeness be used to promote a commercial enterprise. The advertising agency, in order to make use of the picture in that way, must obtain my permission to copy, edit, reproduce and incorporate the photo that I took into their own derivative work, and they must also obtain your permission to use your likeness for advertising Blockbuster. This latter permission is normally obtained through a model release.

That case is useful because it shows how the copyright holder and the person being depicted can be two different people, and thus, how commercial use of the picture requires two different permissions from two different parties. In the Facebook case, it will be the common scenario that the holder of the copyright and the person whose likeness is depicted are the same; however, they still need the two permissions.