Facebook recently debuted two new ad platforms in an attempt to take media to new levels; however, the ad platforms may be shortlived, as the Electronic Privacy Information Center will be filing a suit protesting the way Facebook is using its users to spread free advertising.

According to Online Media Daily, Facebook’s new ad platforms, SocialAds and Beacon ads, which inform users’ friends which advertisers the users are “fans” of, and what kind of off-site purchases the users make.

The obvious issue with this is that by doing so, all the notifications shooting around serve as a form of advertising which the user who is being referenced is not being compensated for. Wendy Davis of Online Media Daily writes, “The three-week-old programs mark Facebook’s attempt to harness users on behalf of marketers, in effect turning members into word-of-mouth advertisers. And that’s precisely why some advocates find the programs objectionable; they argue that Facebook is improperly pressing consumers into service on behalf of marketers.”

On a technicality, users can choose to not participate in the program; however, privacy groups argue that the programs should be opt-in, not the other way around.

One easy solution to the problem of user compensation would be to re-orient the programs to be opt-in; in reward for participation users could receive discounts on the purchases they make or advertisers they become “fans” of.

Regardless, it is safe to say that a site with such popularity as Facebook will be forced to bring this situation to some sort of reconciliation in the immediate future.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 at 11:53 pm under Advertising.

Read more entries by Triston McIntyre.
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