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Facebook Lets Users Opt Out of Targeted Ads

Posted by timothy on from the all-twinkies-and-trucks-for-me dept.

mpicpp (3454017) writes Facebook users who are annoyed by the targeted ads that pop up in their News Feed will soon have more control over what they see. Like Google, Facebook collects all kinds of information on its users and uses that information to serve up targeted ads. For some people, especially privacy advocates, it seemed a little creepy to have a social network tracking a user's activity and then using that data to sell them stuff. On Thursday, Facebook announced that users will soon be able to opt out of that targeted ad system through controls in their Web browser and iOS and Android phones. Facebook will also show users what information they have collected about them and let them edit the kinds of ads they want to see. If someone is confused about why they are seeing an ad for P.F. Chang's, for example, they can simply click on "Why am I seeing this ad?"

6 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. But they're still collecting your data. by ITEM-3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So really, nothing's changed.

  2. Will they hide the "X" icons again? by Animats · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Facebook is notorious for making the "opt out" icons invisible until you mouse over them. Opting out in Facebook is like playing one of those old Flash games where you mouse around the screen, trying to find the hot spot that will accept a click. Are they going to do that again?

    1. Re:Will they hide the "X" icons again? by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What I said in my previous post is verified in Facebook's actual press release. If you watch the video, this is what the guy says:

      You can make adjustments to the types of ads you see. To tell us how you feel about an ad, just click the top right corner of the ad, and click or tap on "Why am I seeing this ad?" From there you can learn more about the ad and update your preferences. The number of ads you see won't change, but because we'll know more about what you like, they'll be more relevant.

      That's the whole point of this. It isn't mainly for people to opt-out of targeted advertising. It's Facebook asking you to help them in targeting their ads better.

  3. you can do one better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Better solution: don't opt out of the targeted ads. Opt out of Facebook entirely.

    The business model of harvesting personal data for profit succeeds only with the cooperation of the public. Stop cooperating, and it'll stop working.

    1. Re:you can do one better by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Social networks are useful. It's about time we wrote and popularized a distributed one, hosted on our own machines rather than dependent on some group of folks to whom we are products, not customers.

      Email lists.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  4. Ads? by spasm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Facebook has ads? Or rather, there are people out there who still don't have adblock installed?