I watched lastnights BBC Money Programme on Facebook which you can watch on iPlayer again in the UK from here.
The section of the show I found most revealing was on 1000heads who are 'digital dialogue experts' which basically means they read online conversations which can be between you and your friends to build up a picture of likes and dislikes. This information is then used in marketing. This happens across blogs and information sources were this information can be read publicly. This is why Facebook is a perfect place for this kind of thing to happen because it's all self contained which makes the whole task allot easier.
Shocked? Well you shouldn't be because it clearly states this in the terms of use of Facebook that they can and will do that.
This is not all, 'Facebook Ad' was launched in September and provides a marketing service targeted at users’ profile and activity data. Advertisers claim that users are naïve to think there should be no advertising, as the Internet is there to make money and not for altruistic reasons. And there is no turning back, as Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, confirmed at the launch of Facebook Ad: “It is an ad supported business.”
Although users can activate privacy settings so that only their nominated friends can see their personal information, only one in five members do this. It means that millions of UK members have left themselves vulnerable to potential identity fraud. To be safe, security experts advise users to be careful what they post in the first place, as Facebook accounts can only be de-activated and not actually deleted.
So I decided that I would have a Facebook clean out, set privacy settings, delete relationships, remove groups, remove personal data (never put personal information like your phone number or address anywhere that is publicly available) and obfuscate personal data I had to supply. I accept that I am a Facebook user and therefore I accept that they have to make money that pays for the servers, bandwidth, payroll and so on. However I want to control what information there is out there about me not allow a advertiser or marketer to pick through my information and my life like searching for tasty morsels chocolates laid out in a pretty box to pick and chose at their whim, not mine. The striking thing is that this is just the legal use! So becareful and protect yourself, if you don't know now ... find out! Don't be a victim.