Facebook Now Totally Open About Using You for Ad Money
You can change your profile photo to whatever you want, but all that Facebook sees are sweet, sweet dollar signs — and they want you to know that.
The social networking site launched new privacy policies on Friday (and by new, they mean you still have no privacy on Facebook) that explicitly state that whatever you do on Facebook can and probably will be used as ad fodder.
The new policy also walks back language that said parents were implicitly consenting to the release of their children's information by allowing them to use Facebook. Instead, they now admit that the information becomes theirs the moment the child initially signs up for Facebook.
The changes are due in part to a class action suit that Facebook settled this August. As part of the settlement, the company must also give parents the ability to prevent their children's information from being used and allow users to see if their activity has been used in advertisements. Neither tool has been implemented.
Facebook spokesperson Jodi Seth told the New York Times that the "innovative controls we agreed to in connection with the settlement" will take time to build. But, according to the Times, she "offered no timetable for introducing them."