Stop Facebook using your Profile and Photos in Adverts

POSTED BY Patrick ON March 26, 2011 / 4 COMMENTS

Facebook using profile Photos Advertisements

The undisputable champion of Social Networks is obviously “ FACEBOOK ” because it is the most popular site and probably the most efficient too. A major thing it does is ensure that its users can achieve the maximum publicity by enabling everyone to “see” each other regardless of whether users know each other or not. This ability is exploited so much by millions of businesses worldwide so that a lot of the so-called “Friends” are really preying businesses licking their financial lips! I suppose it could be worse with the gazillions of imposters and fraudsters patrolling the Face”jungle”book But it is still a genuine concern when your Facebook Profile and Photos get used in advertisements without your knowledge (or financial benefit), yet it is very legal because Facebook makes sure that every new user opening a Facebook Account MUST AGREE to their Privacy Policy which, lets face it, no one cares to read. Moreover if you attempted to read it, you would probably miss the “smallish” print, so here it is FYI:

To serve social ads. We occasionally pair advertisements we serve with relevant information we have about you and your friends to make advertisements more interesting and more tailored to you and your friends. For example, if you connect with your favorite band’s page, we may display your name and profile photo next to an advertisement for that page that is displayed to your friends. We only share the personally identifiable information visible in the social ad with the friend who can see the ad. You can opt out of having your information used in social ads on this help page.

The danger with this kind of “Russian-Roullette Advertising” was made clear in Mashable’s article here about a Facebook “3rd party” Adult Dating advertisement which hooked a man to his own wife!

Therefore all Facebook user’s should make a conscious decision about whether or not to allow their Profile and Photos being used for Facebook Social Advertisements…although that is easier said than done because of Facebook’s legendary hidden settings! Luckily for you, we have an easy step-by-step below:

How to stop Facebook using your Profile and Photos in Advertisements:


1. Click on Accounts at the top-right of your Facebook Account.

Facebook Ads

2. Next click on Account Settings , then on Facebook Adverts. Please ignore any pop-ups that appear because they are designed to steer you away from changing these settings!

3. Look under the label “Adverts shown by third party applications” then go to the setting option asking “Allow ads on platform pages to show my information to” and change it to say “No one”.

Account Settings _Facebook Ads

4. Scroll further down to the bottom of the page where you will find the setting option “Show my social actions in Facebook Ads to” and change it to say “No One” .

Privacy Policy when you create an account with Facebook.

5. That’s it…now excuse me while I go and advertise this post on Facebook!!!

Share this info with your friends, they will thank you!

Tags: , , ,

Comments
S1d3L04d3r post on

thanks for showing me this setting but although i get the “financial” aspect, I dont get the security bit, i mean whats the danger of appearing in Ads???

Patrick post on

It’s not “dangerous” like in a virus for example, and some people don’t mind it while others just dont like the idea! It is your call! 🙂

Sarveshwar post on

Thanks a lot. I landed here from Google search which I did after I saw one of my friends name on a ‘not so good’ advertisement saying “XXXXX used this”. I will post this link on FB so all of my friends could save themselves from this kind of embarassment. Thanks a lot!

Patrick post on

Sweet search engine juices 🙂 thanks for your comments, it feels good to share the knowledge. Appreciated.