Yesterday, my group worked closely with the Electronic Privacy Information Center to prepare a complaint on Facebook’s new Terms of Service agreement. We have been tracking Facebook’s new “engagement” ad targeting efforts, including its “polling” product. As Adweek recently reported, “The polling ad is part of Facebook’s second effort to integrate advertisers into the fabric of the site beyond standard banner units.” As explained by eMarketer, “Facebook’s Engagement Ad polling feature may be a precursor to a more full-blown market research program—one that Facebook isn’t quite ready to talk about yet,†said eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson. “Social network profiles are a treasure trove of information about consumer preferences, and people talk about brands and products frequently.”
Facebook also recently “announced the release of several new Facebook Platform APIs, all of which enable application developers to access and share more real-time information about their users and their friends.” As InsideFacebook reported, the “release of several new Facebook Platform APIs, all of which enable application developers to access and share more real-time information about their users and their friends…While Facebook apps have been able to set Facebook users’ status updates for a long time, this is the first time developers will be able to access current and recent updates for app users and their friends.”
This latest Facebook flap underscores our call for policy safeguards.
