Facebook, the new age social media channel, commonly used as a medium for socializing and advertising is going to be adopting the same policy in an attempt to increase their coverage and online ad network. The company recently announced that Facebook would now be displaying ads to those who are not account holders of its social network. So how is Facebook going to track non-Facebook users?
It appears that they have all this well planned out as they intend to use ‘like’ buttons and ‘plugins’ embedded on other websites to track them. Doesn’t this seem like an invasion of privacy to you? Their practices have been questioned and fell under the radar of European regulations. This was just a small roadblock in their path as they figured a way out of it and are now displaying a banner notification in their news feed for European users.
Because Facebook cannot track non-Facebook users through Facebook, they'll be tracking them through their browser.
This kind of advertising which Facebook has resorted to has been around for a very long time and is known as targeted advertising. Facebook believes that with the data stored from the 1.7 billion of its users is enough to target even non-members. Facebook will attempt to use any information it collects by meticulously browsing through cookies, and other pieces of code on the internet in hopes of showing more ads.
Brian Bosworth, Facebook’s ad executive, explains a little more about their plans of expansion through ads. "Our buttons and plugins send over basic information about users' browsing sessions." He further goes on to say, "For non-Facebook members, previously we didn't use it. Now we'll use it to better understand how to target those people."
Facebook, in an attempt to justify their actions claim that their ads are much less annoying and are personally tailored to individual interests since it can easily make use of what they have learned and understood by billions of their members. The ads will also be targeting existing members according to their likes and tastes from the information collected by Facebook from their daily activities on their accounts. Luckily for those who are non-Facebook users there’s a simple way of opting out of this.
In order to opt out of the ads displayed by Facebook you will need to navigate to the Digital Alliance Consumer Choice website. Here you’ll have a list of all the companies displaying interest based ads on your web browser.
Check the box next to ‘Facebook’ and submit your choice. You’re done!
You could use this neat trick to opt out of many other interest based ads. All you have to do is select them and submit your choices. It’s as simple as that!
It appears that they have all this well planned out as they intend to use ‘like’ buttons and ‘plugins’ embedded on other websites to track them. Doesn’t this seem like an invasion of privacy to you? Their practices have been questioned and fell under the radar of European regulations. This was just a small roadblock in their path as they figured a way out of it and are now displaying a banner notification in their news feed for European users.
Because Facebook cannot track non-Facebook users through Facebook, they'll be tracking them through their browser.
This kind of advertising which Facebook has resorted to has been around for a very long time and is known as targeted advertising. Facebook believes that with the data stored from the 1.7 billion of its users is enough to target even non-members. Facebook will attempt to use any information it collects by meticulously browsing through cookies, and other pieces of code on the internet in hopes of showing more ads.
Brian Bosworth, Facebook’s ad executive, explains a little more about their plans of expansion through ads. "Our buttons and plugins send over basic information about users' browsing sessions." He further goes on to say, "For non-Facebook members, previously we didn't use it. Now we'll use it to better understand how to target those people."
Facebook, in an attempt to justify their actions claim that their ads are much less annoying and are personally tailored to individual interests since it can easily make use of what they have learned and understood by billions of their members. The ads will also be targeting existing members according to their likes and tastes from the information collected by Facebook from their daily activities on their accounts. Luckily for those who are non-Facebook users there’s a simple way of opting out of this.
In order to opt out of the ads displayed by Facebook you will need to navigate to the Digital Alliance Consumer Choice website. Here you’ll have a list of all the companies displaying interest based ads on your web browser.
Check the box next to ‘Facebook’ and submit your choice. You’re done!
You could use this neat trick to opt out of many other interest based ads. All you have to do is select them and submit your choices. It’s as simple as that!
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