Aug 23 2007
Of Commerce And Privacy
Vauhini Vara has a scoop in today’s Wall Street Journal: Facebook is working on a plan that “would let marketers target users with ads based on the massive amounts of information people reveal on the site about themselves.” The news may come as a surprise — though it shouldn’t — to the hordes of new Facebook users who have signed up in recent months. As Vauhini notes, “Most users of Facebook treat it as a sort of online scrapbook for their lives — posting everything from basic information about themselves to photos to calendars of events they plan to attend.”
As Google has learned over the years, striking the right balance between commerce and privacy is a tricky thing. Remember the initial backlash to Gmail, when Google first revealed it would be selling AdWords based on keywords scanned from personal email?
I see three areas of potential concern:
- will Facebook users revolt?
- will the ads work — will people click through?
- will people continue to post so openly about themselves?
My answers to the above are: no, only marginally, and yes.
For all you Facebookers out there — How would this change your use of FB?
I will most likely complain about the ads being not relevant. Just like many complain about Google Ads.