Facebook sent personal information to advertisers

[Newsjock]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Facebooks's privacy safeguards took another hit Thursday with a report that it has been feeding personal identifying information about users to advertisers.

... The latest questions about Facebook's privacy practices, and those of several similar sites, were first raised last year by academics at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and AT&T labs, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal late Thursday.

Facebook was said to have provided the most detailed information. The sites all provided advertisers with user names or ID numbers when an ad was clicked on. Researchers reported that Facebook also provided data on the users and information about the page being clicked on in the form of so-called "referrer URLs." URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, the string of characters that identifies a page of information on the Web.

The data was provided to large advertising companies, including Google's DoubleClick and Yahoo's Right Media. The companies told the Journal they weren't aware they were getting the information and hadn't made use of it.

Facebook said in a statement that it has fixed the problem.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15129607

[JBoy]

1. If Mark Zuckerberg is still the CEO, then they haven't fixed the problem.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. User "names or ID #'s"??!!

And they've fixed "the problem". And of course the companies never knew and never made use of it. Yeah. Sure.

Google. Double Click. Facebook. Yahoo.

Face it. Everyone has an internet profile. They (you know, THEM) know who you are and where you go and what you buy and what you read and what sites you frequent and who you email and what you talk about in those emails and just about almost anything else.

There is NO privacy on the internet. Just a fact.

[customerserviceguy]

3. Oh, my gosh!

I might be subjected to advertising that I am absolutely powerless to resist!

If you think the above statement applies to you, dump your Facebook account.

[aquart]

4. I love a shortsighted response.

[Daemonaquila]

5. Oh yes, of course - we must obey the corporate masters.

We couldn't possibly be activists and force them to CHANGE something - that would just be wrong. I guess the "America - love it or leave it" attitude isn't just for rethugs any more.

[customerserviceguy]

7. They're not going to change anything

they'll just be more stealthy about how they go about collecting and selling your personal information. In any case, you have three choices:

1) Dump your Facebook account. In addition, you may as well abandon Twitter and every other social networking site, they're paying for that bandwidth somehow.

2) Make minimal use of the site, my Facebook page gets a visit about every two or three months, and I gave them a 'junk' email address on Yahoo, so they can spam that.

3) Just do what you want to do, and don't buy diddly-squat from ads on the Internet. They're all scams, anyway.

Crying and whining about Facebook's newly revealed policies isn't going to change anything, only items 1 through 3 above will get you through this. Unless you really do believe that the herbal Viagra that some shill has to sell will work for you.

[Lifelong Protester]

6. Hmm, So that's why I get these creepy ads at the side of my page

advertising 'free Uggs to women EXACTLY XX years of age" (insert my age here). How subtle was that?

[sandspur]

9. the tailored ads needs work. I use the add feedback, and still get Teabag ads

I constantly rate them as being offensive and uninteresting, but the next day or so, they are back. They need to stop taking the personal data and actually use the feedback.

[harmonicon]

8. this question is only for certain idiots.

(Idiots without facebook accounts can ignore it). Why do you fucking idiots still have accounts with them?! How fucking stupid are you? Do you just have no self respect?

[Quantess]

10. I like it, and they actually have very little info on me.

That's how I set up my account, with very sparse information and a fake year of birth (I'm officially 95 years old). I use it to practice a foreign language with international pen pals, and I'm not going to give it up anytime soon.

[frylock]

13. what the fuck kind of private information are you fucking providing to these facebook fuckers?

i'm on facebook all the fucking time. all they have is my fucking name and my fucking secondary email address i use for social networking and other fucking stuff. so cram your fucking condescending bullshit fucking post. out.

[harmonicon]

17. I'm not giving them any information.

I've never signed up. However, I don't think "While I allow people to exploit me, I don't let them exploit me that much," would be a comforting feeling for me. This is a company that has violated a contract that you made with it, and your indignation is about me thinking you're silly for maintaining a relationship with them, not with the company.

[pinniped]

11. When there's $$$$ to be made selling personal info to marketers,....

Facebook's not going to let anything get in their way.

[Chemical Bill]

12. Duh.

Just like every store where I've ever used a charge card.

Bill

[frylock]

14. oh noes!!1

[ChangoLoa]

15. Does this surprise anybody? nt

[alp227]

16. If you live in California, do NOT vote Chris Kelly for Attorney General!

Chris Kelly is Facebook's chief privacy officer! So he's gotta have something to do with this debacle! Vote for Pedro Nava or Alberto Torrico instead, please!

As for Facebook, this is yet more corporate buffoonery just like BP and its management of oil wells and Massey and its supervision of mines.