Report suggests Facebook is outing gay users to sponsors

Facebook might have erred again on the side of lack of privacy, writes Slight Paranoia. ”Challenges in Measuring Online Marketing Systems,” a technical study lately published by investigators from Microsoft and the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, may shed some light on yet an additional dark side of Facebook. In unique, the research suggests that a loophole within the ubiquitous social network may really be giving up homosexual customers to 3rd party advertisers.

Difference in ads for listed homosexual Facebook customers

Facebook outing gay users isn’t an exercise in mind reading, content scrubbing or candid photo analysis. Whether a Facebook user is interested in men or women is something they can post. This can be a fact of Facebook. This had been something Mark Zuckerberg had in mind. It had been part of why he begun Facebook. Facebook targets ads to users depending on the demographic data presented by the user, which is why it would not be surprising if ads were targeted depending on sexual choice.

There had been a study done that showed a fictional homosexual person on Facebook getting very different ads than the other fictional individuals. This is something the Facebook privacy settings are intended to protect from occurring though. Interestingly, ads to the fake lesbian user profile received ads that were not really different than the fabricated hetero female profile. The study authors explain the difference between gay and straight male ad targeting by pointing out that a gay bar wouldn’t want to place its ads on the profiles of straight men, whereas some straight women may be interested in such an advertisement, writes Gawker.

Flash your ID and preference information on the ad

The Facebook and consumer protection groups that is going on is evident. It’s shown here. If you click on an advertisement, your IP address, email and browsing data can all be given to the advertiser. In the case of gay users, Facebook could indeed out gay users by revealing that data when an advertisement is clicked. But even if a Facebook user selects to hide sexual preference via privacy settings, clicking on an ad targets gay men, suggests Gawker, can open up that user to additional “gay-themed” advertising.

Details from

Saikat

saikat.guha.cc/pub/imc10-ads.pdf

Gawker

gawker.com/5669316/is-facebook-outing-gay-users-to-advertisers

Paranoia

paranoia.dubfire.net/2010/10/more-private-data-leakage-at-facebook.html