Based on what I have read from this article, it is clear to see that Facebook is simply trying to increase their advertising revenue from last year. Facebook rolled out a new way to advertise and market products via Facebook. By partnering up with data companies that track online and offline purchase behavior, (Acxiom, Blue Kai, Epsilon, and Datalogix) these Facebook partner categories are able to predict what consumers purchase the most and what consumers would buy again, based on previous purchases. By simply swiping or entering the 16 digits on your credit card, we are basically handing out a whole lot of information to companies without even knowing it. Talk about invasion of privacy. This relates to Pariser’s book heavily, seeing as how social networks are finding more and more concealed and profitable ways to obtain personal information. Coming from a marketing perspective I would say that this is a clever and a different way to increase revenue. However coming from someone who uses Facebook on a daily basis, I would say that this completely invades our privacy, even more than how it already does.
Any thoughts?
Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/facebook-refines-ad-targeting/
I find it overwhelming that Facebook would use this kind of information to target us out for advertisement. Although it is a very smart idea, many people wouldn’t want that kind of usage of their information sent through the whole online universe. I’m pretty sure that these sites are transferring our data as secure as possible, but i’m pretty sure hackers can find a way to bypass their walls when they’re not paying attention. This would leave a massive amount of information vulnerable.
While I still find articles like these disturbing, I’m no longer surprised by any of this. Marketing and advertising is evolving to the point of completely blurring the line between private and public information. Gaining the attention of the right target markets is no longer just about creating and distributing an ad; companies keep finding new and creative ways to gain access to private information they would previously only make assumptions about. I no longer know whether I should be upset about involuntarily distributing my private information to companies or just accept these invasive marketing strategies as a new approach to advertising.
I think that Facebook’s decsion to partner up with these four companies is just another step in the direction of the filter bubble Pariser talks about and also is an enfringement on our privacy rights. I mean, tracking our offline purchases is really ridiculous. I could understand them doing it through our online purchases, because we make the conscience decision to shop online and therefore open ourselves to personaliation. But when they do it when I am not online it just feels sneaky and manipulative. And shame on Facebook, I guess they think that just because they let us know what they intend to do, it makes it okay. But that is not so, what I do offline is my busy not Facebook’s or any other marketing firms.