Facebook is quickly approaching the 1 billion members mark, and it’s also growing daily as a new revenue source for affiliate and online marketers. Through Facebook Ads, advertisers can target nearly all members of Facebook based on their demographics and interests. There has been a lot of discussion on Facebook and their privacy settings lately. This article will discuss the latest FTC settlement with Facebook. It seems like Facebook is always in the news for something, but they just keep growing and chugging along… is Facebook too big to fail?
On November 29, 2011, the Federal Trade Commission settled allegations that Facebook violated Section 5 of the FTC Act by virtue of its privacy practices. The FTC’s enforcement action against Facebook is a clear example of the FTC’s efforts to ensure that websites live up to the privacy promises they make to consumers and that Facebook’s innovations will not come at the expense of consumer privacy.
The FTC’s complaint alleges that Facebook engaged in unfair trade practices by repeatedly failing to conform to its own promises regarding privacy to its hundreds of millions of users. Specifically, the FTC alleges that although Facebook informed customers that they could “control who can see” their profile information by using privacy settings to restrict access to their profiles, these settings did not prevent certain third party applications from accessing their profile information.
The Commission also alleges that Facebook:
- Made changes to its website that made public, information that users previously designated as private, without adequate notice;
- Represented that third party applications would only be able to access profile information that was necessary to operate the application, but were oftentimes given unlimited access to consumer’s profile information;
- Provided advertisers with information about users despite promises that it would not do so; and
- Represented that users profile information, including photos and videos, would be in accessible upon deletion of accounts. However, Facebook continued to allow third parties to access such content after accounts were deactivated or deleted.
The alleged violations of Section 5 of the FTC Act also include a failure to comply with the substantive privacy requirements of the United States-European Union Safe Harbor Framework, a voluntary framework that allows companies to transfer personal data from the European Union to the United States in compliance with European Union law. Since at least 2009, Facebook has maintained self-certification with the Department of Commerce under the Safe Harbor program, under which it has declared its compliance with the seven Safe Harbor privacy principles in its public Privacy Policy and on the U.S. Department of Commerce website. In its complaint, the FTC alleged that Facebook failed to comply with the Safe Harbor principles of Notice and Choice that required it to inform individuals about all the purposes for which it collected their data and to give those individuals a choice about how their information would be used.
Pursuant to the terms of the proposed settlement, Facebook is barred from further misrepresenting its privacy practices and is required to obtain opt-in consent from users prior to making changes that override their privacy preferences. Facebook must also ensure that a user’s information cannot be accessed by anyone after a reasonable period of time, not to exceed 30 days, following the user’s deletion of his or her account, and implement a comprehensive program that protects the privacy and confidentiality of users’ information. Lastly, Facebook must obtain independent privacy compliance audits every two years for the next twenty years, certifying that it has a privacy program in place that satisfies the requirements of the FTC consent decree.
According to Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, the company will create two new corporate officer position, Chief Privacy Policy Officer and Chief Privacy Products Officer.
Inasmuch as the FTC has recently agreed to consent decrees with both Google and Twitter involving record keeping obligations, the FTC now appears to possess regulatory oversight over the privacy and data security practices of the big three social networking companies in the United States.
This guest post was written by Richard B. Newman, an Internet attorney that specializes in performance marketing and regulatory compliance at Hinch Newman LLP in New York, New York.
1. Eminem – 43,597,895
2. Rihanna – 40,970,115
3. Lady Gaga – 40,845,124
4. Shakira – 37,267,475
5. Justin Bieber – 33,219,214
6. Linkin Park – 32,525,479
7. Katy Perry – 32,218,637
8. Lil Wayne – 29,169,770
9. Bob Marley – 28,719,894
10. Akon – 27,966,380
When it comes to the users of Facebook, average users and internet marketers both see the social network in two completely different lights. The average user can’t wait to see the latest status updates and photos from their “friends”. While the internet marketer can’t wait to tap into the latest set of demographics and targets for new users and to create a new stream of ad campaigns to flow through the hundreds of millions of users currently on Facebook.
It seems like everyone has been talking about Facebook Ads for the past several years now, yet so many people are still on the sidelines or got scared away. Yes, 
CPC vs. CPM bidding. Using the statistics from the campaign above, I was mainly using CPM as my bidding model… however I did first test with CPC. Facebook Ads runs all of their inventory based on ad spend and user click through rate. If I initially setup these ad campaigns at a CPC model and put in .01 or .02 per click, Facebook would likely have never even given me any impressions. By bidding on the CPM model, Facebook knows they are going to make money no matter what. First test with CPC, get an idea on what people are clicking on, then back it out to CPM bidding.
I came across this article today, called “
I was actually at Rutgers today and spoke with a few students and was explaining to them about how the advertisements on Facebook work, and how what you see as an advertisement is strictly based on your demographics and interests. Many of them were completely ignorant of this and were blown away when told. They had no idea that the demographic information they voluntarily provided to Facebook actually drove the ads they saw. Even though it should be so very obvious to the user at some points. Change your status to “engaged”, and all you will see are ads based on weddings, gowns and wedding planning. The same holds true for many other demographic/status changes.
