At the heels of the recent uproar over Facebook sharing user data with third parties, comes the issue of featuring users’ images in advertisements they might not even endorse.

Meet Cheryl Smith: a consultant who found out her image was used in a “Hot Singles” ad appearing on Facebook.  While using a third-party application, her husband stumbled across an ad, which to his surprise, was sporting his wife’s profile picture to endorse an online dating site. An ad network had usurped her picture through what Cheryl believes was a third-party quiz application she installed on her Facebook page.

While personalized advertising is one of Facebook’s most ingenious ideas for marketers, it’s not always in the best interest of the user.

In Cheryl’s case however, Facebook’s out of the hot water, pointing the finger at third-party advertisers who violated the site’s policies.  Facebook representatives have stated (through allfacebook.com) that third-party advertisers “need permission from the owner of whatever photo they use.” That is, it’s an agreement between user and advertiser and in Cheryl’s case, a dispute between user and advertiser.

The mega social network states in their Facebook blog that they are concerned about potential privacy threats to users – whether that be at the oversight of a third party or Facebook itself, and prohibits ads that cause a bad user experience, are misleading, or violate its policies.  But that raises two questions: How protected is our content and information under Facebook’s policies?  And, are users blindly consenting to Facebook’s terms of service by skimming over the wall of fine print and the site’s privacy and application settings?

Case in point: Facebook’s Social Ads program.  Facebook social ads are spread virally through news feeds as sponsored content or in the site’s ad spaces.  By default users are opted into the program, which pairs your social actions (i.e., actions published to news feeds and profiles like “John Smith became a fan of The Stripes” and “John Smith wrote a review for Hurley’s Irish Pub”) and your profile picture, with ads endorsing the item you’ve referred to.  In other words, to Facebook’s standards, expressing an interest in a product or service is enough to warrant third-party advertisers the right to use you as an endorser.

Luckily, there is a simple process to opt-out of Facebook advertising:

1.    Under Settings (at top the left hand corner, next to the search bar), click on Privacy Settings.

2.    Click on Newsfeed and Wall.

3.    Click on the Facebook Ads.

4.     Under Ads shown by third-party applications, select No one; then click on Save Changes.

5.    On the same page, you can also opt-out of Facebook’s Social Ads by scrolling down the page and selecting No one under Ads shown by Facebook; then click on Save Changes.

The option to opt-out of third-party advertising is a new feature to Facebook. While this feature attempts to allow users more control over how their information is disseminated throughout the network, it does not prevent unscrupulous application developers from abusing the information they are allowed to access once the user adds their application on his/her Facebook profile.

Facebook has never really gone out of their way to let users know what they are getting themselves into when it comes to installing third-party applications or using the site’s service. As a result, it is up to the user to decide if they trust an application before installing it, to actually read the terms of service, and to view and edit their settings.

Click here to download a guide on how to update your primary Facebook privacy settings.

Sources:
Can you Protect Your Image While on Facebook?
http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/can-you-protect-your-image-while-on-facebook/

Change you Facebook Settings or Else
http://www.culturesmithconsulting.com/change-your-facebook-settings-or-else/

Facebook now lets advertisers use your pictures
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/07/17/facebook-now-lets-advertisers-use-your-picture/

Viral Facebook Message Brings Issue of Ad Endorsements into Spotlight
http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/07/facebook-ad-endorsements/

Facebook posts update about advertising policy
http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/07/facebook-advertising-policy/

Debunking Rumours about Advertising and Photos
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=110636457130

Facebook sez, “Don’t mind us, we’re just whoring your photos”
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/07/16/facebook-sez-dont-mind-us-were-just-whoring-out-your-photos/

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