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Facebook, Others Giving User Private Data To Advertisers

Posted by kdawson on from the naked-we-stand dept.

superapecommando sends along a Wall Street Journal report that indicates that Facebook's privacy troubles may be just beginning. "Facebook, MySpace, and several other social networking sites have been sending data to advertising companies that could be used to find consumers' names and other personal details, despite promises they don't share such information without consent. The practice, which most of the companies defended, sends user names or ID numbers tied to personal profiles being viewed when users click on ads. After questions were raised by The Wall Street Journal, Facebook and MySpace moved to make changes. By Thursday morning Facebook had rewritten some of the offending computer code. ... Several large advertising companies ... including Google Inc.'s DoubleClick and Yahoo Inc.'s Right Media, said they were unaware of the data being sent to them from the social networking sites, and said they haven't made use of it. ... The sites may have been breaching their own privacy policies as well as industry standards. ... Those policies have been put forward by advertising and Internet companies in arguments against the need for government regulation."

11 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Oh Shit by joepress99 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Guess the Journal forgot Rupert also owns MySpace.

  2. Unused by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Funny

    they were unaware of the data being sent to them from the social-networking sites, and said they haven't made use of it

    Ahh, they didn't use it. Then it's all right.

    Nothing to see here.

    I wonder if TPB could use the same defense. "Wait what? You can SEE the downloaded movies? Whoa!"

    1. Re:Unused by commodore64_love · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ha! Funnny.

      I honestly don't care if advertisers learn that I like collecting old computers and other hobbies. I'm more concerned about the info leaking to people with REAL power over me. Like a prospective employer (hmmm, he is pro-gun - don't wanna hire him), or the US government (this guy sold Final Fantasy 7 for $150 and didn't pay taxes).

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  3. surprise, surprise by Tom · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is anyone surprised? As soon as companies grow so big that consumers can not easily vote with their wallet anymore, or their offers are non-monetary for the end-user (who is the product, instead of the consumer), there's no reason they would take privacy seriously. I'm pretty sure the bad PR is the only reason they worry about it at all.

    In advertisement, all commercial participants conspire against the consumer.

    I'm not a friend of government (especially our current one here in Germany, a bunch of monkies could do a better job) - but I don't see which other organisation could regulate these commercial big players anymore. Certainly not the consumers, who despite Internet and all theoretical options of banding together simply have 1000 other things in their lives to worry about, so finding a sufficiently large group of people who care about this particular thing enough to make a difference is as hard as ever.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    1. Re:surprise, surprise by AnonymousClown · · Score: 5, Insightful
      I think most people don't even think about it or don't think they have anything to hide - until their identity gets stolen or they get fired for a post on their Facebook page.

      Unfortunately, throughout the Western World, we have worried so much about government trampling our rights that we completely ignored the private sector.

      To head off the "well, just don't do business with them!" posts, I'd like to point out that Facebook stated in their policies that they wouldn't do this and secondly that every service, whether it's cell phones or internet sites, has a little statement buried in their terms that states they can change the terms anytime they want.

      I really hope Facebook gets sued over this a loses and a precedent is set over internet website policies - in the consumer's favor.

      --
      RIP America

      July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001

  4. I'm shocked! SHOCKED! by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I'm not shocked by the breach of posted privacy policies, but by:

    Several large advertising companies... including Google Inc.'s DoubleClick and Yahoo Inc.'s Right Media, said they were unaware of the data being sent to them from the social-networking sites, and said they haven't made use of it

    So Facebook and MySpace were just doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, not making any extra money from Google & Yahoo?

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  5. Topical.. by Zerak-Tul · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://xkcd.com/743/

  6. I noticed my old myspace appeared after years... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I often search for my name in a futile attempt to remove myself from the internet. I just checked the other day and noticed some person search company, intellius or something has aquired my myspace profile, pics of my friends etc. I have had myspace account closed for at least 3 years if not longer. When I attempted to figure out what was going on by logging into myspace I couldn't even get in... my account was closed. All I know is I'm giving my kids a helping hand when it comes to their first entrance onto the web. Bunch of information vampires out there.

  7. Referrer URL is the issue by Sockatume · · Score: 5, Informative

    My reading of the WSJ article is that the sites were (perhaps inevitably) passing a referrer URL along when the user clicked the ad. This URL is, naturally, one of the user's pages, and will explicitly or implicitly identify the user. The advertiser can then identify the user's page on the social networking site and retrieve any public information there. The WSJ makes it clear that the information is not passed on directly, which goes some way to explaining why the advertisers claim never to have used it.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  8. "Unaware" Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > Google Inc.'s DoubleClick and Yahoo Inc.'s Right Media, said they were unaware of the data being sent to them from the social-networking sites, and said they haven't made use of it.

    Yeah, right.

    If you look closely at Google/Yahoo advertising tags - they are proactively trying to catch (via Javascript) and log (in GET parameters to their server) current URL to which their ads are served. Unless you fake referer AND use NoScript extension, you're giving them this data. And I have a strong diesbelief that they do not store this data.

    Yahoo and Google are logging huge part of your Web browsing history this way.

    I guess they've coded it by accident?

  9. Re:Cue by Abcd1234 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes I'm sure

    No. That's impossible.

    Are you vetting every photo any of your friends or family has every taken? Monitoring their online activies? Are you vetting all photos taken by other people at, say, social events (weddings, etc)? Are you vetting their online activities? No? Then you can *never* be sure if someone isn't posting information about you, somewhere. Well, unless you just hide in a basement with no friends or family to speak of, in which case privacy is the least of your problems.