Facebook 'accidentally outing gay users' to outside firms through targeted ads

Where is this story in the US Press?

Hey folks,

Here is another CLEAR example of the Liberal Mentality. As I keep telling you, Liberalism is the method of being quick to dream, slow to think. It's EASY being a Liberal. It really is. It requires NO thought at all. Just FEELINGS. Here is what I mean.

"We are killing the Planet. Your 'Carbon Footprint' is ABC. So you can now pay $X to become Carbon Neutral." Oh that's great some think. I can now give $X and FEEL good. I'm saving the Planet. I'm doing my part. I am repenting from my sins against Nature. That is Liberalism. Now Intelligence is APPLYING THOUGHT.

"We are killing the Planet. Your 'Carbon Footprint' is ABC. So you can now pay $X to become Carbon Neutral." OK. So WHOM am I paying? Why? How is this going to help the environment if I simply pay a fine, yet change NOTHING in my Lifestyle? Do you have any REAL Science to back what you are telling me to begin with? ETC.

It is much easier to simply accept what someone is telling you and jump on board a bandwagon, and FEEL good about yourself. You will even get praised by others that are both suckered into it with you, and those perpetrating the SCAM.

So this is the way it goes all the time on the Liberal side. This is a clear example. Just last Sunday, October 17, 2010, I posted this. Facebook, Censorship Or Compassion

I truly hope that Facebook walks this very fine line, understanding that crossing it, and violating our First Amendment, in the name of compassion is not the answer. It's time that we here in America, stop catering to Minority Groups with special interests, and start asking and answering the REAL and Tough questions. We need to protect Kids from ANY and ALL walks of life, Races, Religions, Sex, and Sexual Orientation matters not. We need to treat each other with respect, and look out for what is best for ALL. We need to treat everyone equally, and have Laws that do the same. Stop this nonsense of placing this or that group, over all others, and let's truly come together as one.

Here is the REAL LIFE application of the compassion that Facebook wanted to show. I did not even think of THIS one. According to UK Daily Mail - Facebook 'accidentally outing gay users' to outside firms through targeted ads By Niall Firth Last updated at 6:32 PM on 22nd October 2010,

Facebook might be inadvertently outing its gay users to advertisers, according to a new study.

Researchers have discovered that different targeted advertising is being sent to users’ accounts if they have described themselves as gay or straight.

The discovery could mean that people who wish to keep their sexuality private may be sharing it with advertisers without their knowledge.

The loophole is yet another example of a Facebook privacy breach after it emerged that millions of pieces of personal information were being shared without users’ consent after using popular apps.

I know, I know, the obvious answer here is to not post anything that you do not want to share with MILLIONS of people. As a matter of fact, I just saw a Video someone posted on Facebook talking about Imagines that some young people post. EVERYONE has access to them and ANYONE can capture them forever. I also understand that this is talking about Facebook, taking info that some post, and sharing it without permission to others.

But what about this? "Arrogance" and "Ignorant" are having a conversation and they say "Victim" is SO GAY. Now Facebook comes in and takes that Post off and suspends "A," and "I" for a period for violating their Anti-Gay Offending agenda. Now EVERYONE will know that "V" is Gay. Or at least that will be the interpretation. But this really is an interesting Article.

A team from Microsoft and Germany's Max Planck Institute created six fake profiles: two straight men, two straight women, a gay man and a lesbian. They wanted to see if Facebook targeted ads based on sexuality, and so the profiles were left otherwise completely the same.

The team then monitored what ads each virtual user was sent over a period of a week.
They found that the ads displayed on the gay man's profile differed substantially from those on the straight one. Many of these adverts were not obviously adverts for services that only gay men would require, and half of them did not mention the word ‘gay’ in the text.

The researchers say that this means people who click on the adverts from their Facebook profile will not know that they were targeted for that ad because of the sexual orientation and so by clicking through on the ad are effectively ‘outing’ themselves.

This means that the advertising firms now know if they are gay even if this aspect of their profile has been hidden from public view.

The researchers write in the paper: ‘The danger with such ads, unlike the gay bar ad where the target demographic is blatantly obvious, is that the user reading the ad text would have no idea that by clicking it he would reveal to the advertiser both his sexual-preference and a unique identifier (cookie, IP address, or email address if he signs up on the advertiser's site).’

The loophole means that any advertisers who collect data such as Facebook IDs could match a person’s sexual preference with their unique ID and their name.

A Facebook spokesman said: 'Our advertising guidelines prohibit advertisers from using user data collected from running an ad on Facebook, including information derived from targeting criteria.

'For example, we explicitly prohibit them from associating that targeting detail with the data collected from the user in forms they fill out, applications they make, or other interactions on their site. We also require that targeting of ads based on a user attribute be directly relevant to the offer in the advertisement.

'We take the privacy of our users very seriously and take immediate action when violations of these policies come to our attention. We don’t provide any personally identifiable information to advertisers and we recommend that people always exercise caution when filling out forms about themselves online.

'We have no evidence that the advertisers mentioned in this study sought to collect information about people using Facebook, but we encourage people to report any advertisements that they suspect may be doing so.'

Last week it emerged that vast amounts of data – including the names of individual members and their online ‘friends’ – were passed to internet advertising firms, with tens of millions of people thought to have been affected.

The leaks were possible even when members had deliberately set their privacy options to the maximum secrecy levels.

The practice violates Facebook’s own rules on data protection and will raise questions about the company’s ability to keep information about its members’ activities secure.

Security experts warned that the details could be used – when combined with other publicly available information – to build up a detailed picture of an individual’s interests, friendship circle and lifestyle.

Around 25 different advertising and data firms were receiving the information, an investigation by the Wall Street Journal found.

It was passed to them by firms whose ‘apps’ – games and other features – operate on Facebook and not by the social networking site itself.

Using the data allows advertisers to better target individuals with promotion for specific product.

So basically, be careful what you do Online, on Facebook, or anywhere else. But this is another aspect of the Pro-Gay Agenda that is cause to think about. Could Facebook "Out" Gays unintellionally in the name of protecting them? Yes. Not to mention if this Gay Rights Activist Group decides that something YOU post is "Anti-Gay," YOU could end up being labeled incorrectly, a Homophobe.
Peter