Your Face Will Soon Be In Facebook Ads

jfruhlinger writes "If you're planning on checking into Starbucks using Facebook Places, your friends may soon see your profile picture in a Facebook ad for Starbucks — and, it goes without saying, you won't be paid a dime. You can't opt out, unless, as Dan Tynan puts it, "studiously avoid clicking "Like" or checking into any place that has a six- or seven-figure ad budget." The ad will also include whatever text you use in your checkin, so Tynan suggests some judicious pranksterism ("Just checked into the Starbucks around the corner and this doppio mocha latte tastes like goat urine")."

Comments

Or..

[js3]

You could avoid using facebook altogether.

Re:Or..

[dkleinsc]

The key thing to realize about Facebook is that Facebook's customers are its advertisers and partners. Facebook users and their personal information are the product.

Not that there aren't other businesses out there doing much the same thing - Google, NBC, CNN, and Fox for starters.

The sort of person who uses Facebook Places...

[eric_brissette]

...probably also thinks it's extra cool that they get to be in a Starbucks ad.

Stop bashing Facebook

[mr1911]

To all those bashing Facebook saying it has no value: stop it.

Facebook is immensely valuable. No sociological study could be funded on such a scale to determine just how much crap people will put up with from a free service before they stop using the service.

But then the joke will be on those of us that value our privacy. I know too many people that would think it was fantastic having their picture used to promote Starbucks and would sell their soul to stay on Facebook.

Re:My Face

[TheRaven64]

There's an important difference. If you upload a photograph of yourself, then you have agreed to Facebook's T&Cs, which gives them a transferable, commercial, license to use them as they wish. If you upload a photograph of someone else, this does not apply because copyright is jointly held by the person taking the photograph and the person represented.

This means that Facebook would be violating copyright for commercial purposes if they used a photograph of someone other than the person who uploaded it. The person pictured would have standing to sue them for copyright infringement. Facebook could then (potentially, depending on the T&Cs) sue the person who uploaded the photograph for uploading something without the legal right to do so, but I doubt they'd consider suing their users to be good business.