Marian’s Happenings

Today I was made aware that my Facebook user data is being used beyond the bounds of Facebook for target advertising.

This is highly disturbing.

The ad was served from DeviantArt.com, as I was doing my daily browsing. I wasn’t even logged in to Facebook at the time, so I am also concerned about how the ad agency is identifying me. I have very tight privacy permissions on my account.

The ad itself was styled to appear very similar to a standard Facebook ad. It is likely that many are even unaware of the extent that their personal information is being utilized. The image on the ad was not of the same quality of a regular facebook ad, suggesting that images may be being stored elsewhere.

The ad redirected here: http://rockyou.com/

Here’s what it looked like:

And then it finally clicked. We’re all being used and are totally unaware of the control others have over our personal information. Of course, I knew this- we all do. But it doesn’t actually fully click until something like this happens.

But Facebook is like a drug. They hook you in by offering services unrivaled by others, they weave their way in to the fabric of our very social beings so that we build up a dependency, driving us further forward despite obvious security concerns. Even if I was to stop using facebook as a tool, images of myself would still reside on their servers from friends. So why fight it?

Because if we don’t, then there’s no hope that consumers can take back control of their own lives on the Internet.

What you can do: 

Crank up your privacy settings as much as you can: http://www.facebook.com/privacy/?ref=mb

Talk to Facebook about their ads: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=ads_general

Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 8:52 pm.
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