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FEATURE
Facebook marketing program draws public backlash
By Jon Gingerich
Social media giant Facebook has
once again pushed the boundaries
of its privacy policy, this time
drawing the ire of millions of users, consumer
rights groups and even members of
Congress in the process.
In April, Facebook debuted a program
that shares users’ personal information
with a select partnership of third-party
web sites. Called “Instant
Personification,” the program automatically
customizes sites visited by
Facebook users to fit that user’s preexisting
profile data. Third-party sites are fed
the user’s account name, friends list and
about as much information as the social
network has on the user, regardless of
whether they planned to divulge this data
to the site or not.
Pandora and Yelp are a few of the popular
third-party sights that have currently
signed on to participate in the Instant
Personification feature. A user who visits
Yelp, for example, is told the site is using
their Facebook data to “personalize your
experience.”
Online petition groups have formed to
speak out against the new Facebook feature,
both on the social network site as
well as from organizations such as
MoveOn and online resource blog allfacebook.com.
Most have been critical of
the Instant Personification feature, which
they see as a privacy policy gone awry
for the sake of runaway marketing purposes.
Facebook spokespersons claim the
Instant Personification program only uses
information already made publicly available
on the network, and users can optout
of this feature at any time.
Critics claim the opt-out process is
cumbersome and confusing. Many have
suggested instead that the program
should exist as an “opt-in” service that
users proactively choose to be a part of.
“Facebook’s Instant Personalization
service is a great attempt at providing a
more social experience within websites
from the moment the user arrives, while
simultaneously sacrificing a user’s right
to privacy,” said Nick ONeill, Founder of
Social Times, Inc.
“The company should have made this
service opt-in from the beginning, not
opt-out.”
Critics also point out that while users
can opt-out of Instant Personification,
some information will be still be visible
when friends on the site participate in the
service.
The debate has since moved into the
political arena. Senator Chuck Schumer
(D-NY), who has publicly blasted
Facebook’s actions regarding the new
program, recently told CNN that he plans
to petition the FTC to devise new rules
regarding what social media sites are
allowed to do with its users’ information.
This isn’t the first time Facebook’s privacy
policy have come into question. In
2007 the site drew fire when it debuted its
infamous Beacon program, an advertising
targeting platform that published
users’ purchases from other sites on individuals’
profile news feeds. Public backlash
to the program was high, and several
class action lawsuits were filed before
Facebook removed the service from its
site in 2009.
The social network site is also currently
criticized for making it impossible to
hide certain profile details, such as user
name and location.
14 MAY 2010 WWW.ODWYERPR.COM