Unless you want to see your face in a advertisement (with $0 compensation) you need to update your Facebook Privacy Settings. Thank you to SC Magazine for clarifying how you have consented to let advertisers use your photos. Facebook is a little murky on the issue.
Here’s what happened to Cheryl Smith, a consultant who blogs at Culture Smith Consulting. Her husband was surprised when an ad for “Hot Singles” popped up complete with her picture! (At least it wasn’t one of those face lift ads)
Facebook’s manager of policy communications Barry Schnitt said, “We are as concerned as many of you are about any potential threat to your experience on Facebook and the protection of your privacy. That’s why we prohibit ads on Facebook Platform that cause a bad user experience, are misleading, or otherwise violate our policies. Along with removing ads, we’ve recently prohibited two entire advertising networks from providing services to applications on Facebook Platform because they were not compliant with our policies and failed to correct their practices.”
SC Magazine reports:
The first issue relates to Facebook Ads and that every user is opted in to this by default, the practice of which has never been effectively communicated to the user community.
Ferguson said: “So although it is possible to opt out, most users are not aware of how to do that, or even that they are opted-in in the first place. So, if you do not want your (no doubt beautiful) face to be used for Facebook Ads, log in to your account, hover the mouse pointer over ‘Settings’ in the top right of your Facebook window and choose ‘Privacy Settings’. Next, click the ‘News Feed and Wall’ link and select the ‘Facebook Ads’ tab as below, setting this to no one will opt you out. However, this setting won’t affect your photos that are being used as described in the next section, contrary to many of the stories circulating around the internet at the moment.”
The second issue, claimed Ferguson, was more serious as advertising networks place advertisements inside the Facebook applications that have become so pervasive across the platform.
Ferguson said: “These third party ads are one of the major ways that Facebook application creators generate income, and they are served up by ad networks who are not affiliated with Facebook. If you give the application the rights to access your information (as indeed you have to if you want to use them) then the ad networks can access that stuff too. That’s how you might find yourself being the cover girl or poster boy for a product or service that you never intended to endorse.”
He recommended being careful with adding applications in the first place and if you find you are not using an application anymore, go ahead and remove it from your profile. You can do this by going to ‘Settings’ then ‘Application Settings’ and make sure you change the drop down menu from ‘Recently Used’ to ‘Authorised’ and click the X to the right of the table to remove an application.
Update your Facebook Ads Privacy Settings as follows:
- Log in to your Facebook account
- Hover your mouse over “Settings” (top right of your Facebook window)
- Select “Privacy Settings“
- Click “News Feed and Wall”
- Select “Facebook Ads” tab
The tab says:
Facebook occasionally pairs advertisements with relevant social actions from a user’s friends to create Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads make advertisements more interesting and more tailored to you and your friends. These respect all privacy rules. You may opt out of appearing in your friends’ Facebook Ads below.
- Select “Appearance in Facebook Ads” = ”No One“
- Log in to your Facebook account
- Hover your mouse over “Settings” (top right of your Facebook window)
- Select “Application Settings“
- Change the drop down menu from “Recently Used” to “Authorized“
- Click the X to the right of the table to remove an application
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