Privacy worries raised over Facebook's timeline plan

Post by Aurora Johnson on 9th February 2012
 in Display advertising, Social media

Facebook's plan to sell advertising to be displayed in users' timelines, showing what they have done on the site to their friends, has come in for criticism from privacy campaigners.

The plan involves incorporating unsolicited advertisements among communications which show what people have been listening to, watching and reading through the social media network.

But analysts say many users could resist the idea of having their information sold to advertisers for this purpose.

Analyst Rebecca Lieb, of the Altimeter Group, told the Financial Times: "There will be a user hue and cry. After [that] people settle down and accept this stuff.

"People care more about getting free media than they do about their privacy," she said.

The timeline is an early iteration of what Facebook has dubbed "frictionless sharing" of features and content, which will see, for example, details of content downloaded from a streaming service added to that person's Facebook profile.

Facebook has in the past denied that it would be developing marketing opportunities alongside these features.

But, said the FT's April Dembosky, the company is in any case restricted in the information it can currently release about new developments in the run-up to its pending share offering.