You might have read some variation of this false rumor over the last few days:
“FACEBOOK has agreed to let third party advertisers use your posted pictures WITHOUT your permission.”
After checking on Snopes, I looked toward the official Facebook blog. Sure enough, they have posted a note debunking this rumor. Friday I wrote a post on Psychotic Resumes on how to lock down your Facebook profile. I didn’t cover how Facebook actually uses photos, which, from that blog post has been described:
“How We Use Photos
We’ve run advertisements from our own advertising system for more than a year that let your friends know if you have a direct connection with a product or service, in the same way that your friends learn through your News Feed if you’re connected with another friend or an organization’s Facebook Page. For example, if one of your friends becomes a fan of a Page, you may see an ad, like the one below, with your friend’s profile photo that indicates the action that friend has taken.”
What this means is that if you fan a page or something like that – your picture and name might appear to your other friends showing that you’re a fan. You can turn this off (if you’re REALLY paranoid) by going to Settings -> Privacy -> News Feed and Wall. Then click on the “Facebook Ads” tab. Mine is currently set to “Friends Only”, but you can set it to “No One.” You might have more options depending on how your security settings are set, but… this is a pretty innocuous use of your info.
Facebook might have screwed up when it came to their last TOS change, but this time – it’s completely made up.
Digital Gunslinging – Debunking Facebook Rumors
“FACEBOOK has agreed to let third party advertisers use your posted pictures WITHOUT your permission.”
After checking on Snopes, I looked toward the official Facebook blog. Sure enough, they have posted a note debunking this rumor. Friday I wrote a post on Psychotic Resumes on how to lock down your Facebook profile. I didn’t cover how Facebook actually uses photos, which, from that blog post has been described:
“How We Use Photos
We’ve run advertisements from our own advertising system for more than a year that let your friends know if you have a direct connection with a product or service, in the same way that your friends learn through your News Feed if you’re connected with another friend or an organization’s Facebook Page. For example, if one of your friends becomes a fan of a Page, you may see an ad, like the one below, with your friend’s profile photo that indicates the action that friend has taken.”
What this means is that if you fan a page or something like that – your picture and name might appear to your other friends showing that you’re a fan. You can turn this off (if you’re REALLY paranoid) by going to Settings -> Privacy -> News Feed and Wall. Then click on the “Facebook Ads” tab. Mine is currently set to “Friends Only”, but you can set it to “No One.” You might have more options depending on how your security settings are set, but… this is a pretty innocuous use of your info.
Facebook might have screwed up when it came to their last TOS change, but this time – it’s completely made up.