I’m not sure if you guys remember a change Facebook made recently which forced us to update our privacy settings? Well I believe the articles and blogs I posted on here explain a little bit about why they did this. At first people thought it was entirely Facebook who was using personal information not only to target the ads that we see but also to use it in the ads (even our pictures at times).
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/07/17/facebook-now-lets-advertisers-use-your-picture/
In another blog I found it was rectified that it is not Facebook, but third- party app developers that use our information. In this blog, the woman was actually a “victim” of this because her picture was used to advertise a singles ad and showed up on her husband’s facebook!
http://www.culturesmithconsulting.com/2009/07/change-your-facebook-settings-or-else/
In this entry she explains how you can avoid this from happening,but since then, like I said before, Facebook has changed its privacy options. Now, everytime you add an application to your profile, they have access to anything that is set to ‘Everyone’. I actually went in to check mine and found nothing I have is set to Everyone which I hope means that my info can’t be accessed by ad agencies.
If you’re interested in checking your settings go to:
1. Account -> Privacy Settings
2. Applications and Websites -> And under ‘What you share’ click on Learn More.
I think that this goes hand in hand with the fact that money has a lot to do with how the internet is run. We can access Facebook and use as a networking device but we are subject to our personal information being used to profit others and often left in the dark about it as well.
The link you provided is actually from a post I wrote in July 2009. I’m pretty sure with the host of changes Facebook has made to their privacy settings, some of the steps may no longer be valid or available.
Comment by Cheryl Smith — March 2, 2010 @ 1:20 am |