Facebook came under fire this week for violating privacy policies where they were revealing your name, the names of your Facebook friends, and potentially tracking the websites you visit online to some advertisers. We’ve all seen the ads on Facebook; mine are all about healthy eating, baby products and sometimes I even get advertising professional ones. I don’t mind these ads since they are relevant to me and they aren’t obtrusive in any way, but at what point is the line crossed?
I started to think about the evolution of the internet – 20 years in and social media – 8 years in and wondered, is this just what is going to become of online advertising? At the end of the day, I’d rather get advertising that is relevant and very targeted to me than just noise (and I’m not just saying that because I’m an advertiser). I understand that boundaries must remain; I mean I don’t want my credit card number to be out there for the taking when I do my online shopping. But so what if marketers now know that I live in San Antonio, have a 16 month old daughter, been married for 6 years, have a BBA, MBA, work in advertising, love to run, eat healthy, etc, etc? The websites I visit will reflect these attributes about me too. Although I was likely not at risk since I don’t subscribe to 3rd party apps like Farmville, my reaction to the scandal was kind of passive.
I’m by no means excusing the violation; there is a reason why I don’t subscribe to those third party apps and games. After all, they don’t exist for our pure entertainment; they want something in return, which is why you must click “allow” in order to subscribe. But the whole notion of our online behavior and it being tracked for advertising purposes is something that has been happening for a long time; even Google knows all about this (yes, when you “Google” something, you are being tracked). It’s just a matter of where do we draw the line? Or do we?
– Isabel North
