Keeping Your Profile Photo & Other Personal Info Out of Facebook Ads

Jim EvansGreater Cleveland PC Users Group

March 2011

Warning, warning . . .

Have your Facebook friends been posting this on their wall?

Facebook is being sneaky again – On Friday, Facebook started using your photos in ads that will appear on the profile page of your contacts. It's legal and is mentioned in the fine print when you create your account . . .

What’s Going On Here?

• Facebook is free to use, but they need to somehow make money

• They have ads that appear on the screen • They make a very small amount each time the ad

appears • Multiply it by millions of users and suddenly we are

talking a lot of money per day

What’s Going On Here?

• Sometimes these ads have a photo in them, people you may even know

• While your friends want you to believe this issomething new, it really isn’t• Let’s go back to July 2009

July 2009Facebook used to run ads for dating sites. One day, a guy named Peter had this ad appear on his screen. The funny thing is, he’s married and the picture is another Facebook user, his wife!

That’s right. His wife, Cheryl Smith, a blogger with her own website at cultueSmith. Go see her blog post where she recommended changing your setting in July 2009.

So, What Can You Do?• Opt out of appearing in Facebook ads • By default, they have opted you in • Facebook is famous

for making you make the changes to

increase your privacy or security level

To stop this• Log into your Facebook account• Click on Account• Click on Account Settings

• This screen will appear• Click on the Facebook Ads tab

• An Understanding Facebook Ads screen pops up• Facebook tries to explain what Social Ads are • Read or not read it• Click the Close button

Now we are getting to the important stuff• By default, Facebook

decides that your friends can see your information in ads on platform pages• This information can

include your name, profile photo and other personal data

Under Ads shown by third party applications

• Click on “Only my friends” • Change it to “No

one”• Click “Save Changes”

But, hang on, you’re not done yet

Under Ads shown by Facebook

This is a sample ad where your name might appear

This is the part that your friends’ warning leaves out

Under Ads shown by Facebook• Click on “Only my

friends”• Change it to “No one”• Click “Save Changes”

Now you’re done and your picture will not appear in ads