Facebook Not Allowing Third Parties to Use Member Photos.
Monday, 27. July 2009
Facebook has gone on the record stating that there has been no changes in it’s privacy policy.
Recently, a rumor that Facebook was allowing 3rd party advertisers to use members photos without their explicit permission, has turned out to be just that, a rumor.
Strangely, what appears to be fueling the rumor is a setting under privacy -> news feeds & wall, called facebook ads. This setting reads as follows:
“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.”
This is set to “only my friends” by default. The rumor text is recommending you change this setting to “no one”.
When I found this, I felt a bit taken advantage of, I would have thought the proper default for this would be “no one”, but I guess that was why I got a “D-” in marketing…
The truth is, this rumor brought to light a privacy setting that everyone should be made aware of. The default setting in my opinion is clearly wrong.
Please read the Facebook Blog for more on this.
— Stu
