news aggregator

Also, finally got our vanity URL on Facebook. Come on over and be a fan! http://www.facebook.com/galacticbinder #starwars

The next person who joins our UTR Facebook page is fan #100! And we'll be allowed to get a vanity URL! ~ http://tinyurl.com/mm4mat

dites, je voudrais savoir ou je peux recuperer l'url du flux RSS (si il existe) de mon statut facebook o:

I'm on Facebook again. I don't know my url, so search "Andrew Rosinski, Chicago"

I now have a Facebook vanity URL as well. Feel free to follow me there as well. Thanks #fb http://www.facebook.com/horizonconsulting

Does anyone know how to add a url address at Facebook? #FB

Squaring things away with my myspace page. Facebook is weird as hell, u gotta go through hell to get ya url link!

Who has a facebook?? if so add me up ( facebook.com/laydeetwisted ] or send me your url .

Good morning everyone! Happy Sunday! Yay! I got my vanity URL from facebook. Facebook.com/cleverindie http://www.facebook.com/cleverindie

@HalSparks What your FaceBook and MySpace URL?

@nadhirahsr310 how'd you change your url for facebook profile?

@nadhirahsr310 how'd you change your facebook profile url?

RT @ArmyPRFlak Twitter, Facebook Strike Leads Back to Russia, Georgia - http://url.ie/270r

@vijei idk my url in facebook.maybe you could search riko misakawa.

To those who are asking for my fb url,here is it. http://www.facebook.com/kristinebernal

Last month, Facebook suspended two Facebook Platform ad networks from operating on the Facebook Platform due to deceptive practices and bad user experience. The ad networks were allegedly presenting Facebook users with misleading advertisements inside third party applications (i.e. suggesting a user’s friends had taken an action when they hadn’t), and sometimes putting Facebook user data on outside landing pages in ways that violated Facebook’s privacy policy.

Since then, those ad networks have not served any ads on Platform applications as far as we’re aware, though other Facebook Platform ad networks have continued to use Facebook profile photos in their advertisements in acceptable ways. Nevertheless, rumors have been spreading in recent weeks that Facebook changed its policies to allow advertisers to incorporate Facebook users’ photos more liberally than they had been allowed to before. Today, Facebook issued the following statement to “debunk” those rumors:

The advertisements that started these rumors were not from Facebook but placed within applications by third parties. Those ads violated our policies by misusing profile photos, and we already required the removal of those deceptive ads from third-party applications before this rumor began spreading.

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.

Facebook has always had a very open approach to third party ad networks on the Facebook Platform. Those ad networks are allowed to use friends’ photos in ads as long as the creative is not deceptive and does not violate Facebook’s privacy policies. While third party ad networks do sometimes cross the line, Facebook has shown that it is willing to take substantial punitive action to protect the long term viability of the ecosystem.

At the end of the day, Facebook wants the Facebook Platform to both be a safe place for users and offer developers large, sustainable monetization opportunities. The company has an important responsibility to monitor the ways that third party ad networks are incorporating user data, and at the same time wants to help developers figure out the best ways to monetize through Platform advertising. Ultimately, Facebook may need to either having a more stringent vetting process for third party ad networks doing business on the Facebook Platform or create additional privacy settings to give users the option to disallow any Platform ad networks from accessing their profile information.

It’s also worth noting that, separately, Facebook has incorporated user photos in Facebook Ads (the ads that run through Facebook’s own advertising system) for a long time. For example, see the thumbnail photos next to the home page ad at right. However, Facebook reiterates in its blog post that, “These social ads always require that you and your friends have taken an express action to indicate your connections with the product or service and that no data be shared with the third party.”

Facebook allows users to turn off this setting by going to their Privacy Settings page, choosing “News Feed and Wall,” and clicking the “Facebook Ads” tab.

Update: We asked Facebook for clarification about its policies regarding Platform ad networks and whether any changes were planned. According to Facebook’s Barry Schnitt:

We have a number of stated policies that are applicable here, including:

• The data section of the platform guidelines indicates that just because a developer gets access to user data doesn’t mean that they can use it
• Developers are not allowed to pass user data they get from FB to ad networks.
• Apps cannot break the law, and there are rights of publicity issues that come into play here. Facebook is granted permission in the terms to use a user’s photo in an ad but this permission does not extend to developers or ad networks.
• Not doing anything misleading (indicating a user has taken a quiz when they haven’t is misleading)

SRR 9.2 and 9.3 are also applicable:

• You will make it clear to users what user data you are going to use and how you will use, display, or share that data.
• You will not use, display, or share a user’s data in a manner inconsistent with the user’s privacy settings without the user’s consent.

Finally, we’re looking at additional policies that would more specifically address socially rich ads in Platform.

One month ago today, Facebook started testing a new version of the “publisher” that allows users to choose who can see their status updates and posts.  Unlike previous versions of the publisher, the new version puts significant emphasis on much more open sharing - for example, the first privacy option in the list is “everyone.”

While the new publisher - an important stepping stone toward the future of Facebook Search - is still under testing, Facebook’s research team is asking users how open they would describe themselves as being in recent surveys.

The first question in the two-question survey asks users how much they would agree with the statement “Facebook cares about its users’ privacy and security” on a scale from 1 to 5. The second question asks users to choose which of the following best describes themselves:

• Very open – I wouldn’t mind if everyone could see all of the information I share on Facebook
• In between – I don’t mind if everyone can see some of my information, but certain information I only want to share with my close friends or family
• Private – I only share things with people I know

While ultimately everyone falls somewhere “in between,” it’s possible that Facebook could use data it’s collecting to shift how far down the open side of the spectrum it goes with broader rollouts of the new pro-public-sharing publisher in the coming weeks and months. We wouldn’t be surprised to see Facebook take a more gradual approach, as some users are bound to misunderstand the new settings.

This afternoon Facebook posted an update to their blog regarding the viral note circulating around the web about third-party ad networks. According to their post, the company is concerned about the user experience and so far they have shut down two ad networks (as we have previously written) and have forced some ad networks to remove the deceptive ads previously in question. The most important component of their blog post is as follows:

The advertisements that started these rumors were not from Facebook but placed within applications by third parties. Those ads violated our policies by misusing profile photos, and we already required the removal of those deceptive ads from third-party applications before this rumor began spreading.

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.

While the post clearly explains how Facebook attempts to monitor the platform, there is no clarification as to their policy about how third-party ad networks use your images in advertisements. As I’ve written twice already, modifying your ad settings (as described in the original download squad article and the viral note spreading around Facebook) will not remove your photos from third party ad networks.

While Facebook is clearly concerned about the users’ experience with their platform, the company is in a challenging position of determining how to manage this issue. Preventing ad networks from using user images all together will be an overly aggressive action. Extending the privacy settings so that third-party ad networks are forced to check the privacy setting when displaying an ad is costly to Facebook in terms of development and costly to ad networks in terms of ad display processing overhead.

Right now Facebook has a terms of service in place that should protect users (including limitations on data caching, and limits on how ads are displayed). You can read more about the company’s ad guidelines here. One thing that doesn’t appear to be listed in the terms is how user images can be used in advertisements.

I’ll have to do some more digging to see if there is any clarification of that anywhere in the terms. So far I have not found any clarification and as far as I’m aware, third-party ad networks currently don’t have restrictions on which friends are displayed in ads. I’ve reached out to Facebook for clarification and am waiting to hear back.

Update
I’ve spoken to Facebook and they’ve made some relatively strong statements, the most important of which was that ad networks “need permission from the owner of whatever photo they use.” That means unless an ad network asked for permission to use your image, they can’t use it. Additionally, here are the policies that are applicable according to Facebook:

• The data section of the platform guidelines indicates that just because a developer gets access to user data doesn’t mean that they can use it
• Developers are not allowed to pass user data they get from FB to ad networks.
• Apps cannot break the law, and there are rights of publicity issues that come into play here. Facebook is granted permission in the terms to use a user’s photo in an ad but this permission does not extend to developers or ad networks.
• Not doing anything misleading (indicating a user has taken a quiz when they haven’t is misleading)

The only question I have now is when did any ad network on the Facebook platform ever ask for permission to use my photo or anybody else’s?

Update 2
As I recall from over a year ago, the main loophole in this system is that the majority of users’ photos are publicly accessible via Google. That means ad networks have the capacity to view some of your friends and their photos via crawling the public version Facebook.

Ben Mezrich’s “The Accidental Billionaires,” the famously embellished story of Facebook’s early days, is coming to the big screen in a movie that will be produced by Kevin Spacey, Spacey told MTV yesterday. The film will be called “The Social Network” and may start shooting as soon as later this year.

It won’t be the first time Spacey has produced an adaptation based on a book by Mezrich, who Facebook VP of Global Communications and Public Policy Elliot Schrage says, “Clearly aspires to be the Jackie Collins or Danielle Steele of Silicon Valley.” Last year, Spacey produced “21,” based on Mezrich’s “Bringing Down the House,” the story of how MIT students gamed Vegas.

While Facebook’s founders probably won’t appreciate some of the liberties the film will take with Facebook’s history (Mark Zuckerberg refused to be interviewed for Mezrich’s book, preferring instead to work with David Kirkpatrick on his upcoming authorized story), it will mean that Facebook will be in the entertainment headlines and the topic of discussion around the watercooler even more as the film approaches.

“We’re at a very early stage,” Spacey said. “But I think it’s on the fast track. I think the film — they want to do it and maybe even do it this year. So it’s gonna happen. But I have no clue as to who may be in it, because ultimately that will be [up to] the director.”

This morning I’ve received numerous messages from people about the viral message going around the site about how to opt-out of Facebook advertisements. Following a misinformed article by Download Squad from last week, users are now going crazy about their images using in Facebook advertisements. While your image may be used, most users aren’t educated about how they are being displayed.

For many months now, Facebook has been using our friends’ images in advertisements about groups, Facebook Pages, and applications. When it was initially launched, the blogosphere was debating whether or not Facebook’s decision to make consent a default setting was the right way to go. One University of Minissota professor and former Harvard Berkman Center fellow, suggested the ads were illegal. That was in reference to Beacon and what was then called “Social Ads”.

“Social Ads” have now become Facebook ads but the same endorsement feature exists. Over a year and a half later, the masses appear to understand a small amount of what’s going on and it’s being spread throughout Facebook via the following note:

Facebook has agreed to let 3rd party advertisers use your photos in their ads without your permission (and so presumably, forever). TO OPT OUT: Click on ‘Settings’ (in top nav bar, next to logout); Drop down to ‘Privacy Settings’; select ‘News Feed and Wall’; Select tab for ‘Facebook Ads’ and ‘No one’ in the drop down. Save changes and PASS THIS ON.

The Download Squad article was clearly the initial impetus behind this message. While Facebook assumes that the user consents to share this information, that’s not the main issue. Facebook continues to let third party ad networks use your photos as well, and making the privacy setting changes outlined in this viral message will not remove your photos from third party ad networks.

That third parties can use your image without your consent is the primary issue at hand and now that the issue has been brought to the masses, Facebook will need to publicly announce a policy decision. If Facebook decides to prevent third-party ad networks from inserting user images, the effects could be disastrous for third-party display advertisers on the platform and could cost a lot of money for many developers.

It will be interesting to see how things play out over the coming days. What do you think Facebook’s policy should be on third-party ad networks use of user images? Also, should Facebook assume consent by default for using your images in their ads?

NOTE
Facebook has posted an udpate regarding their policy.