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Facebook is impersonating users without their consent

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Re: Facebook is impersonating users without their consent

#61

Post by blahedo »

rjsamson wrote: post #44
jxi wrote: post #8

The question is: can I opt out of this, or am I obliged to deal with this as long as I'm a Facebook user. I personally find this is pretty bad. I don't want my friends seeing my past likes from several years ago and seeing me endorse something stupid that I liked before (on the front page). Do I need to go through my likes and curate it all the time? It's different if it's just on my profile because having it in the…

Yes - you can opt out of this - to do so, go to your settings, then click on 'ads' in the sidebar on the left and select 'edit' on the ads & friends section - there you can set "Pair my social actions with ads for" to "no one".

Are you sure that's what that's for? When I go to that setting (which I'd already set to "no one" in an earlier privacy audit), the example it shows of what it controls is very different from the "related post" issue that's being complained about here.

Re: Facebook is impersonating users without their consent

#62

Post by NickKampe »

GUYS! We thought up a new way of how to describe why Facebook is bad, we'll make it seem like this hasn't been happening since "Likes" came into existence and watch people revolt!

If you're butthurt about your privacy and think big brother is spying on you, don't fucking use Facebook.

Re: Facebook is impersonating users without their consent

#63

Post by NickKampe »

NickKampe wrote: post #62

GUYS! We thought up a new way of how to describe why Facebook is bad, we'll make it seem like this hasn't been happening since "Likes" came into existence and watch people revolt! If you're butthurt about your privacy and think big brother is spying on you, don't fucking use Facebook.

Also, why does this have 96 upvotes? Shame on you HN.

Re: Facebook is impersonating users without their consent

#64

Post by crcn »

matthuggins wrote: post #57
crcn wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to be as genuine as possible. My wording revolved around unsophisticated individuals who makeup a majority of Facebook. "Impersonation" perhaps isn't the proper word to use, but it certainly encompasses the general concern about promoted content. To the eyes of an unsophisticated friend, I like penis waffles. For the record, I don't. I never liked anything similar, but Facebook re-posted a "like" (VICE) under…

It does make it clear with the obvious "RELATED POST" language that is in capital letters between the " likes " and the post below it.

The unsophisticated user won't read "related post" because it isn't noticeable. There's no clear differentiation between a recycled "like" post, and one that you physically like. They look almost identical.

Re: Facebook is impersonating users without their consent

#65

Post by uzusan »

matthuggins wrote: post #57
crcn wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to be as genuine as possible. My wording revolved around unsophisticated individuals who makeup a majority of Facebook. "Impersonation" perhaps isn't the proper word to use, but it certainly encompasses the general concern about promoted content. To the eyes of an unsophisticated friend, I like penis waffles. For the record, I don't. I never liked anything similar, but Facebook re-posted a "like" (VICE) under…

It does make it clear with the obvious "RELATED POST" language that is in capital letters between the " likes " and the post below it.

The relatedness is very much up for debate though. If i like an article on a website, then later on that website publishes something else which is only related because its on the same site, does that mean facebook can re-use my like for the new page? Not only would i need to vet all the current content to see if there is something that i don't agree with, i would need to trust they would not post something horrible in future and have my name attached to it under a related post.

Re: Facebook is impersonating users without their consent

#66

Post by lilsunnybee »

mekwall wrote: post #54
timerickson wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, but it is still a very valid concern. The post from OP stemmed from such an "unsophisticated viewer," namely: his mother; she thought that he had liked an article about "Penis Waffles" that VICE posted some months ago, and she urged him to take the post down due to its vulgar nature. Of course, he couldn't take the post down, and had no way of even KNOWING the post was being shown to his friends and family.

It is not. It can be turned off... https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads&section=social...

Your two statements are paradoxical.

Re: Facebook is impersonating users without their consent

#67

Post by tobyjsullivan »

orijing wrote: post #51
tobyjsullivan wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're facts are correct and this isn't officially "impersonating a user." However, there is a very fine line that Facebook is crossing. Specifically, these sponsored posts are displayed in a way that causes confusion to the viewing user and, I am confident, this confusion is intentional on Facebook's part. As an apt web user with quite a bit of experience with Facebook and the web in general, I still get confused by…

> I am confident, this confusion is intentional on Facebook's part. How can you be so confident about someone's intent ? I disagree with your assessment but didn't downvote your comment because I want to understand.

I can be confident because Facebook spends more time and money studying user interaction with their advertisements than any other single aspect of their business. They have focus groups, they study eye movement with iris tracking, and they are leading authorities in online marketing. They don't make a change to their online ads without understanding 100% of the variables.

And, for the record, this analysis of Facebook's investment in user study isn't mere conjecture. I've been lucky enough to attend a talk by Facebook employees on their efforts.

Re: Facebook is impersonating users without their consent

#68

Post by redwood »

Osmium wrote: post #46
tobyjsullivan wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're facts are correct and this isn't officially "impersonating a user." However, there is a very fine line that Facebook is crossing. Specifically, these sponsored posts are displayed in a way that causes confusion to the viewing user and, I am confident, this confusion is intentional on Facebook's part. As an apt web user with quite a bit of experience with Facebook and the web in general, I still get confused by…

> Specifically, these sponsored posts are displayed in a way that causes confusion to the viewing user Ah, suddenly it all makes sense... I was genuinely wondering why my friends were "liking" advertisements. I don't use Facebook often enough to keep up with what they've changed, so this was genuinely confusing to me. The idea that they were "reusing" likes hadn't even crossed my mind. For anyone who says what they'r…

Seriously... what's unfortunate is that all your favorite movies, bands, and essentially interests that are specific and listed in your profile can post.. for example since I posted "Big Lebowski" as a favorite movie years ago, I now see "Big Lebowski" posting to keep itself current. Sure, I get that.

However what I wouldn't expect is my friends to see "Big Lebowski" related content associated with my name. Normally I wouldn't mind, but then you start realizing there is a lot of value to having many people "like" you, and who are all the people who own these accounts associated with interests anyway.

I can imagine my friends see ads via my interest for Big Lebowski, for bowling, white russians, flights to LA, etc.. sky's the limit on monetization for these guys. But that was never my intent nor would I want my friends seeing all that crap due to me!

Re: Facebook is impersonating users without their consent

#69

Post by danboarder »

What facebook is doing here is similar to back when the bigger search engines got in hot water for mixing ads into search results in various shady ways (recall Paid Inclusion programs about 10 years ago, see http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2004/07/64092 ). It did not benefit the user and generally created confusion and a poor user experience, driving many users to try Google for the first time (Google never had Paid Inclusion that I can recall).

Re: Facebook is impersonating users without their consent

#70

Post by jrockway »

I like how Google+ makes +1-ing and sharing that you +1'd something two separate operations. Sometimes you want people that have already found the content to discover that you liked it too, and sometimes you want to share something you like with your friends. It's nice that I get to decide.
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