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Facebook's Dangerous Data Game

More than 13,000 Facebook users have signed a petition against the new advertising practices laid out by the company a few weeks ago. An opt-out recommendation system that sends notices to users' friends about the products and services they buy is among the ad "innovations" that have been identified by the group as compromising user privacy. Blogger/Web entrepreneur Jason Calacanis calls the new advertising tools "extremely innovative, extremely rude, extremely helpful, and extremely disconcerting."

For one thing, he says, Facebook is now collecting and republishing user data "on a level not before seen by users." Worse, the company is giving advertisers access to their information while taking it out of their control. That control, he points out, is the foundation on which Facebook's purported $15 billion valuation has been built. Simply put, Facebook's Social Ads is a big win for advertisers and a big loss for consumers.

Calacanis conducts an experiment using the popular video game "Guitar Hero." Any user that says in their profile that he or she likes "Guitar Hero" could have that information sold to marketers. "Ask yourself: Did you fill out your profile in order to be sold to marketers?" No, you simply said that you "liked" "Guitar Hero," not that you wanted "Guitar Hero" ads served to you. This amounts to a data sale on a "false pretense," which is not good for a company that built its empire on trust.

Read the whole story at Calacanis.com »

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