Facebook and others caught sending user data to advertisers

By on May 21, 2010 at 7:09 AM
Services May 21, 2010

big-brother

Another day, another scandal involving social media websites. Today the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Facebook — along with MySpace, LiveJournal, Hi5, Xanga, Digg and Twitter — have been sending personal information about their users to advertisers without consent. Depending on how much information users opted to make public on their profile, advertising firms such as Google’s DoubleClick and Yahoo’s Right Media were able to obtain information as innocuous as the user’s ID to their hometown and occupation, all without the expressed consent of the account holder. Not surprisingly given what we’ve learned over the past few weeks, the WSJ said the worst offender is Facebook. Not only did it pass on information about the people that clicked on ads, but it also sent out information about the person whose profile the ad originated from. The WSJ had an assistant professor from the Harvard Business school evaluate code found on Facebook’s site and ultimately concluded that “if you are looking at your profile page and you click on an ad, you are telling that advertiser who you are.” Facebook was contacted about the matter, but claimed “we were recently made aware of one case where if a user takes a specific route on the site, advertisers may see that they clicked on their own profile and then clicked on an ad,” adding that “we fixed this case as soon as we heard about it.” For its role, MySpace said it is “currently implementing a methodology that will obfuscate the ‘FriendID’ in any URL that is passed along to advertisers.” Twitter simply stated that “this is just how the Internet and browsers work” when users click a link, and Digg denied any wrongdoing claiming it only passes on “information about the page that you are visiting, not you as a visitor” and that the initiating user’s ID is concealed. Both Google and Yahoo said they did not actively seek specific information about user IDs.

What do you think, folks? Does this confirm your worst fears about the ethics of the people running your favorite social media site, or is everything being blown way out of proportion?

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  • Bring Home The Wopper

    As bad as this may sound, I’m not surprised. How else are they going to make money?

    • LazyKid

      “Like!” =D…not really

    • The Late Ted Kennedy

      I always thought facebook was own and operated by the Federal Goverment.

      • Norm

        I think they were initially funded by the CIA as a way for the govt to get more info out of people than they could ever have been conceived to offer up.

      • Calidude

        It’s pretty obvious that Facebook has always been a way for government and corporations to get people to willingly give up and centralize their information, which is why sites like Facebook have a clause on their user agreement that everything you post about yourself is true and accurate. Look at the connections between Facebook, the CIA and DARPA and its very clear that this is not merely a fun place to hang out, but a place to gather as much information about people as possible.

        Same with Google, which can pretty much create an entire psychological profile based on your internet habits, especially if you use Chrome…

  • that guy

    Whats Facebook?

  • http://(null) dba

    these are free sites, get used to it. not like your tv provider isn’t passing any info about what you watch

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

    • The Late Ted Kennedy

      Shut the fuck up you idiot! ou must be one of these stupid fucks just walking around.

  • Bigfish

    They can’t get my address, SSN or bank information so what’s the big deal?

    • American Patriot

      And as long as you think that, they win.

  • Jeff

    This concerns me for the millions of people who don’t know or understand what’s going on (the majority of facebook users). Even though I have the bare minimum on my facebook (no occupation, education info, interests, groups, etc), I have become more aware of what I say to people and post since I don’t know where it’s going….Openbook anyone? http://youropenbook.org/

  • B

    It’s probably all in the terms & conditions that no one reads. Plus, as stated before, they need money to run the site and advertising is all a target audience and statistics.

    You cant put something on facebook and then cry when they info is actually seen or used.

  • Tay

    It’s not a surprise but it is something to think about. It’s pretty deep if you think about it. So much info on a person can be found on the internet

  • webby

    To open an account on those sites using your real name and real information is unwise, IMHO. Personally, I would never do it.

    This latest revelation is just another example of why.

  • rehnhart

    This is why I will never join a social network, and why many of my friends are talking about leaving. Does anyone remember when email was the hot way to keep in touch, those were the good ole days.

  • midibite

    Fuck it. I like pr0n and I don’t care who knows.

  • the Goat

    That is in fact “how the Internet and browsers work”. When it sends a request for a URI specified on a webpage (like a advertisement) the browser includes the referral URL. If that referral URL includes HTML form input (like user id’s) then that information gets set along. You can configure most browsers to not send the referral URL.

  • Electrofreak

    Wow, people really are naive. This isn’t Facebook’s fault or anyone elses.

    You click a link, the URL you’re currently at is sent to the server you’re connecting to. It’s how they discover where their traffic is coming from.

    So… if you’re on a page that links to a profile, the profile URL is going to get sent to an advertiser you click on. Nothing new there, it’s been that way since the web started.

  • joshua

    people. if you have info you want to keep private, don’t post it on the Internet. if you want people to have information about you, then go ahead and post it on the Internet. does this sound like an incredibly simple concept to anyone else?

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: St Cloud United States

  • Tom Miller

    Plain and simple, don’t put information on the internet that you don’t want other people to know about. How hard is it really to update your profile and privacy settings anyway? I choose to use these sites, but am careful about what I share.

  • StevenGlansburg

    Q: Why do I use the name StevenGlansburg on forums?

    A: I have no desire for any of you to know who I really am. I do however use my real name on Facebook, but unless you are my friend you can’t see anything about me. Even then, if you are my friend you can’t see tagged pictures of me.

    However, the biggest thing I’ve decided on facebook is that its not about updating your privacy settings. Facebook will take the info they want from you whether its private or not. That is the fucked up part.

  • tk-093

    I actually have another concern.. People actually click on online ads? I did not know that.

    • webby

      And some people actually apparently respond to spam email. If they didn’t, the spammers would have long since gone out of bidness.

  • SOUTHERN MISS ELITE

    As a sidenote, this is why I don’t use my real email address on BGR unless it’s for a contest…

    But I remember when I first joined facebook back when it first went public. It was WIDE open back then! I mean it even had options to leave your class schedule. Seemed like a perfect marriage for someone like me, who had just left high school and was a freshman in college.

    Each year I left less information. Something just didn’t seem right.

    Then, in 2008, the ultimate scam happened. A guy wanted to add me. I don’t normally even add guys but all my friends had him added so I went ahead and did it thinking it was someone in HS that I just forgot about. But, after about 2 months dude had about 700 friends and nobody knew who he was.

    Then he posted that he was a fake account and he wanted everyone to know that he had access to everything from phone numbers to real addresses and family trees. By then I only had my phone number and name on there. I deleted my number.

    Then, last year, the huge headlines about jobs scouring facebook occurred. So, I deleted my last name and half my middle.

    And I started thinking…what’s the purpose of this? So now I’m in the process of collecting all the contacts I want to keep and just permanently deleting my facebook (the right way, because facebook hides the right way)

  • Topher86

    OBEY
    O.B.E.Y
    O=B=E=Y
    OoBbEeYy

  • Mrwirez

    I am less than a millimeter from a total wipe and delete of Facebook. I already stripped out any pertinent information and use maximum security, but somehow complete strangers were able to obtain pictures of a wreck I was in.. NOT COOL! I think we need an “Internet Privacy Act of 2010″.. Yes, more regulation on companies..

  • jdubbz

    Not surprised one damn bit.
    It’s time to take this country back. It will be a long and difficult road, but it can be done ethically and properly.

  • Dale McNamee

    From the article :

    “Another day, another scandal involving social media websites. Today the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Facebook — along with MySpace, LiveJournal, Hi5, Xanga, Digg and Twitter — have been sending personal information about their users to advertisers without consent. ” I guess it’s the price for being “connected”.

    My friends,family,and I prefer the relative privacy of e-mail for our communications.

  • user

    As usual, people are suckers for trusting any corporation with their private data. You don’t know where it’s going to end up or who will use it to screw you.

    Google Maps. Frightening that Google links your browsing history, GPS location / activities and mail correspondence (if you use them). How it’s shared is never in your control regardless of any public screw-ups, privacy policies or otherwise.

    You basically give up a whole lot of very private information to strangers. That these social network sites seem to be the main thrust of selling big-screen phones these days is frightening.

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