Why Gay Men Are Worth So Much To Facebook

Barence writes "PC Pro has a feature on how social networks sold your privacy, which includes some interesting comparisons on the value of different demographics to Facebook. For example, an advert that targets everyone within a 10-mile radius of a medium-sized British town (Dorking) is valued at 28p per click by Facebook's advertising tool. However, targeting single gay men in the area with a preference for nightclubbing raises the price to 71p per click — 2.5x the price of targeting the general public. Such precise targeting also raises other issues. Whittling down ads to target such precise demographics can result in ads targeting as few as 20 people, making it theoretically possible to identify those targeted. 'I think the worst scenario might be where someone who hates gays uses Facebook's targeting to identify gay users and later attack them,' says Paul Francis, scientific director of the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems."

Comments

Re:What about ladyboys/shemales?

[jawtheshark]

Why would anyone be against shemales? They know best how to give head while at least superficially looking like females ;-)

Wait, wait, let me get this right

[Rogerborg]

Paul Francis, uh, "scientific" director of the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, has figured out that if I choose to declare that I'm gay on my public Failbook profile, then people can use that information to determine my sexuality?

Whoa, that's some cutting edge research there. Thanks for looking out for me, Paul.

Re:Wait, wait, let me get this right

[bjourne]

Not only that, they can also figure out the probability that you are gay based on the number of gay people you have friended on Facebook. Or if you are tagged in photos that also features known gay males. Soon enough you'll see online ads for nail polish and ymca records..

Re:Wait, wait, let me get this right

[Americano]

drinking too much and going through the various scenarios of drunkenness and ending up in Somalia

Sweet jesus, if that's really how hard they party, I need more gay friends.

"Guys, I think we really gotta take it down a notch. This is the third time this month we've woken up, hung over, on Sunday morning in Mogadishu. It's fun, but this walk of shame is killing me."

Re:Wait, wait, let me get this right

[TheRaven64]

You don't even have to buy anything. One of my friends asked for my opinion on some shoes she was considering buying and sent me the Amazon link to two options. For the next year, Amazon was convinced that I wanted to buy ladies shoes and dresses.

Re:Wait, wait, let me get this right

[Americano]

I'm throwing my ticket money at the computer screen right now. WHY WON'T YOU TAKE IT?

Because they're fabulous?

[Hatta]

Page 3 before gay men are even mentioned and that's the headline? I'm not even going to bother making an on topic post.

Re:Don't want to be targeted?

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Don't want to be targeted? Don't use Facebook

and don't live in a town called Dorking.

Re:What about ladyboys/shemales?

[SuperKendall]

You'll have to excuse Slashdot, you have to understand that to many of us a shemale is uncomfortably close to a transporter accident, so it's bothering us at a primal geek level.

Gay men and iDevices

[Anonymous Coward]

You need to stop perpetuating that hurtful stereotype. Just because I like men doesn't mean I don't like digital freedom.

Dammit

[RivenAleem]

I knew something was odd about that add for a Gay Male who finished school in '95 in the small town of Skibbereen working as a barista in Starbucks in Blackrock, with horn rim glasses and wearing a hoodie currently typing on ... aaaarrrrgggggggggg

Damn it, Bob, you got it totally wrong!

[Anonymous Coward]

... I said "GAMING"! I said we needed more GAMING on Facebook, not gay men!

Signed, MZ.

Re:What about ladyboys/shemales?

[TheRaven64]

Everybody looks down on someone. I try to be egalitarian and look down on all of you equally.