Facebook recently announced an update to, “make advertisements more interested and more tailored†and they’re calling it Social Ads. What it does, basically, is tag users names to products they like. For example, if you like BMW’s company page your name and/or profile picture could appear at the bottom of BMW ads displayed to your friends (see picture at left). While this feature may not be too alarming, I’d caution to consider future-proofing your account as much as possible.
According to Dan Tynan, “it’s going to get worse. It looks very likely Facebook will soon allow third party advertisers to use your name and face inside Facebook apps. How do I know this? Because they’ve already set up a way for you to opt out of it.â€
I always encourage everyone to micro-manage your Facebook profile, (there are privacy tools to help with this) simply since it gives you some piece of mind that those photos you’re being randomly tagged in aren’t available to the general public. And of course, per Facebook’s usual policy, the default is that you are opted-in to this campaign.
Here’s how to opt-out of this:
- Login your Facebook profile and click on the “Account†link in the top right
- Select “Account Settingsâ€
- Select the “Facebook Ads†tab
- Change both options (screen shots below) to “No one†and click “Save Changesâ€.
