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The New Facebook Ads - Another Privacy Debacle?

Posted by Zonk on from the ask-then-do-ask-then-do dept.

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."'"

14 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. Ya by moogied · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Man nothing would be worse then ad's targetting me on a website where I put my full name, school, work, a list of friends, a list of likes and fears, and pictures of myself.

    Those bastards.

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    So basically, -1 troll/offtopic is really slashdots way of saying "I hate that you thought of something before me."
    1. Re:Ya by Mrs.+Grundy · · Score: 4, Informative

      I don't think you get what is going on here. It is not targeting ads to you. It is targeting ads to others using you as an unpaid spokesperson without your direct consent (or consent in the small print of the TOS). In the example on the facebook site, a person who liked the movie 'Top Gun' has their image being used to advertise Blockbuster. I'd be pretty pissed to find my face on a Blockbuster or Walmart ad just because I liked a product that one of these companies wants to sell. I think it is all pretty unseemly.

  2. Definition of privacy by elwinc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Post is 100% right. The definition of privacy is control of personal information. Secrecy is one means of control, but not the only one. Things like the "do not call" list are implementations of privacy by other means; i.e. they have your personal information, but you can still prevent them from using it by calling. Credit card and bank account info are also private: you give your CC# to a vendor and the vendor is only allowed to use it for the purpose of that transaction. Facebook apparently fails to appreciate the distiction between privacy and secrecy. They need to understand the magnitude of their error.

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    --- Often in error; never in doubt!
  3. Users Choose by rueger · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I find the Facebook privacy stories frustrating because they seem to always ignore one thing - in almost every case the Facebook user decides how much information to make public, to whom, and which applications to install.

    Facebook actually does a pretty good job of giving users control over their information and arguably is transparent about the ways that it may be used. That's more than a lot of e-commerce sites can claim, and in an age of spam-bots and the like probably commendable.

    And ultimately it is optional, you have to choose to sign up.

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    Three Squirrels
  4. Ahem, from the terms of use: by ericrost · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."

    So, you gave them permission, good luck fighting it.

    Suckers.

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    My Babylon
    1. Re:Ahem, from the terms of use: by saterdaies · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not quite. So, my friend Amy posts a picture of the two of us on Facebook as her profile picture. She has given Facebook a license to that photo. That's what the agreement stipulates. First, if Amy didn't take the photo, she might not own the rights to it and Facebook could be sued for copyright infringement. Yeah, they have that clause saying that you warrant that you have the rights to post it, but that simply won't hold up if they're sublicensing it. Sites can't be sued for what their users post, but then if they start sublicensing it in an intentional manner, it gets a lot more blurry. Second, and this one is a lot more air tight, the agreement does NOT include a clause granting endorsement rights. As the original post said, that is very different from copyright rights. Amy might own the copyright on many pictures of me. She does NOT have the right to license my image and likeness for the purposes of endorsement. She has the right to post the picture and even to give Facebook the right to use the image how they see fit as long as it isn't considered using the image/likeness as an advertisement or the like.

  5. This is fine by jonnythan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You rate a product there, you are providing Facebook with your opinion of the product. You agree to let Facebook use this opinion any way they want. You've also agreed to let Facebook use the pictures you've uploaded.

    This conforms just fine with the user agreements. If you don't like it, don't use Facebook.

  6. Re:As long as the users don't care... by Donniedarkness · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Most facebook users I know don't really care about any "attention" they may get through the site. They use it to easily send messages to friends and keep in touch with people from their old high schools (I live on a college campus).

    Yes, you sometimes see people with crazy pictures, but there are very few of those, from what I've seen.

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  7. Re:Facebook is public by cybermage · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The site assumes that if you post something about a product where the whole world can see it, then you consent to being used in an ad.

    That's an assumption that will get them sued. There are laws and legal precedence about using people's likenesses without their consent. Just because you say you like a product or service in public it does not give anyone the right to use that as a commercial endorsement of the product or service. If it were so, you'd see celebrities constantly hounded to give their opinions on products hoping to use their response in advertising.

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    Some people have a way with words, and some people, um, thingy.
  8. Re:Facebook is public by ericrost · · Score: 4, Informative

    They have consent.

    http://www.facebook.com/terms.php

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    My Babylon
  9. Re:As long as the users don't care... by epee1221 · · Score: 3, Informative

    As long as facebook refrains from using pictures of users that have restricted accounts, I could see this being a bonus for particularly attention seeking users.
    As I understand it, these ads will be displayed by the news feed page, which aggregates information from your friends' recent activity. Only people's friends would be able to see them in ads.
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    "The use-mention distinction" is not "enforced here."
  10. In other words... by nunyadambinness · · Score: 3, Informative

    "It's exactly why I am the guy who quit Facebook almost as soon as I'd joined it."

    You didn't do your research, and want to complain about it after the fact while taking no personal responsibility.

    "Privacy" does not mean "free from the consequences of bad decisions". You are (I assume) an adult. Try acting like one and protecting your privacy instead of assuming someone else will.

  11. Re:And what if they start caring? Or about ex-user by telbij · · Score: 4, Informative

    Give me a break. If you deactivate your account, all your information is deleted. You're complaining that if someone tags you in a photo, that tag still exists? Well, first, I'm not so sure that's true. It would be pretty sloppy engineering since the user account doesn't exist and so the link would go nowhere. And second, anyone can post anything about you anywhere, that doesn't make it someone else's responsibility.

    Don't like what your friends are posting about you? Take it up with them!

  12. Re:Facebook is public by dnormant · · Score: 5, Informative

    More specifically (from your link)

    "When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."