Facebook Social Ads Illegal?

Facebook recently announced that ads you see on the social networking site will be attached to the names and photos of your friends who like the products being advertised.

According to Saul Hansel of The New York Times, "There is at least one problem with this idea: It may be illegal under a 100-year-old New York privacy law. The statute says that “any person whose name, portrait, picture, or voice is used within this state for advertising purposes or for the purposes of trade without the written consent first obtained” can sue for damages. Moreover, such a use is also a criminal misdemeanor."

Duh.

Apparently, the law would apply to Facebook users anywhere if the ad were displayed in New York. Arguably, it could apply if the ad was displayed on a computer screen within the state. Yet “where the ad actually is in cyberspace is a whole other can of worms,” according to William McGeveran, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School.

The interesting challenge in all of this, is when is the right to provacy breached? When the law is broken, or when the populous complains.

“It’s unclear that today’s teenagers and twentysomethings will be too upset by this,” said Mr. McGeveran.

Chris Kelly, the chief privacy officer of Facebook, commented to the NYT:

“We are fairly confident that our operation is well presented to users and that they can make their own choices about whether they want to affiliate with brands that put up Facebook pages.”

The privacy debate continues...

Comments

[Ryan Watkins]

The general user has no idea that his image and name are going to be used to display product likes and dislikes in the coming weeks.

I think once he figures that out, he'll be very frustrated with what Facebook has done.

I personally think the idea is genius, but I'm one of those users who will disable that function if possible. I don't want to be anymore of a walking billboard than I already am...