No opting out from Facebook turning your check-ins, likes into ads

Another privacy 'win' by Facebook.

I'm somewhat surprised by this feature, it would be fairly easy to abuse. If you were suddenly upset with say Starbucks you could change your photo and use your 'check-in' comments to push negative advertising as well. Not only negative advertising, but targeted negative advertising.

"Currently, marketers don't have the ability to know or plan word-of-mouth endorsements as part of their campaigns,"

I thought that was the point of word-of-mouth endorsements.

I doubt this will really provoke much outrage. Remember, half of Facebook is a vanity service. If you're "liking" Starbucks or checking-in at TGI Fridays, you want to show off to your friends that you like that brand.

So I have a question: why is this a problem? Or, more specifically, how is this non-trivially different from the way that Facebook has worked to date? It seems almost identical to the way that your activity would otherwise have been broadcast, save the fact that it is in a more prominent, advertising-y context. It's not like the check-in didn't happen, or that it wouldn't have shown up anyway in the exact same activity feeds that are instead receiving the ad form of the check-in.

For some reason it seems like users have this pathology where they are upset whenever and however web companies try to monetize site usage, regardless of justification or intrusiveness. But, then again, I don't understand how people justify using AdBlock either, and lots of people (at least on Reddit) got really pissed about that when Ars Technica tried to block AdBlock users.

Also, how is this like Beacon at all? People are already checking in at these places on Facebook. The check-ins are just getting sponsored by the subjects of those check-ins. It's not like there's any surreptitious data sharing, apart from letting Starbucks know that I checked in there (which they would also know from the fact that I bought a Latte).

its starting to feel like Facebook is pushing the limits of click-wrap EULAs so far that the general public will demand EULA reform.

This is the kind of shit that will do Facebook in eventually. People don't like being exploited for someone else's profit so overtly.

There are echoes here of the "Beacon" fiasco --- in which Facebook was briefly broadcasting users' activity on third-party sites (particularly on-line purchases) to their Facebook friends, whether the users wanted that broadcast or not. This isn't quite the same thing, but you can certainly imagine it going wrong in some of the same ways...

Prohibiting users from opting out will likely result in less 'likes' for corporate products. I find it puzzling that Facebook seems completely disinterested in incentivizing users to partcipate in their sponsor coaxing schemes. Moves like this would likely be better received if users were treated as affiliates (i.e. compensated for their product endorsements) rather than walking data aggregates.

This needs one more feature. If Starbucks uses your likeness, you should get a free drink.

It's nice how Facebook keeps validating the decision to opt out of Facebook.

Beacon lives on. Facebook is too smart for the average bear.