Facebook Finds a New Way to Make Money Off of You

Facebook now has a new feature:  Promote and Share.  This feature allows all Facebook members to promote posts made by their friends.  Of course, to do this, there will be a fee.  You can now choose to “Promote and Share” any post made by any friend, for a $7 fee.  The posts promoted do take into consideration privacy settings, but there is no way to opt out of this.  The feature is causing some privacy concerns because the friends whose posts you’re sharing have no say in the matter. 

According to Facebook, this feature has been added because they felt there was a need.  It is said to be beneficial to all Facebook members by allowing them to make others aware of special events in a friend’s life.  This includes such things as landing a new job, welcoming a new member into the family, graduations or good deeds.

A statement issued by Facebook said, “This feature respects the privacy of the original poster – i.e. it will promote to everyone who originally saw it.  You can only promote posts to the people that your friend originally shared with.  If you have mutual friends, they’ll see that you shared it and promoted it.”

Some may not see the need to spend $7 to promote a post since the only people who can see the promoted and shared information are the ones who were originally allowed to see it.  What would be the advantage of such a feature?  The “advantage” would be that it would bring the post higher up on the news feeds, so if a mutual friend missed the original post, he or she would most likely see the promoted and shared post.

Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center feels that this is a way for Facebook to not only take control of member information, but to also make money off of it.  He stated, “The user, not Facebook, should control the data.”  Comparing this feature to the telephone company’s Caller ID feature, Mr. Rotenberg further stated, “The telephone companies were charging customers to obtain the phone numbers of the people calling.  They were also charging people to block the disclosure of their telephone numbers.  Either way, the telephone company made money.  But, the key was that they first had to take control of the disclosure of the users’ personal information, i.e. the phone numbers.”

Another criticism came from the Executive Director of the Center for Digital Democracy, Jeffrey Chester.  He said that the Promote and Share feature “further transforms friendship into just another marketing opportunity.”  He went on to say, “Nothing is off limits to Facebook executives when it comes to turning friendships into an opportunity to make an extra buck.”

Aside from Facebook making money off of your friends’ accomplishments in life, I can see this feature also being used not only to promote the admirable things being done.  Someone will surely find a glitch in the system which allows some not so flattering posts get to people not “friends” with the original poster.  After all, with all of us having mutual friends and friends of friends on our feeds, how many promotes will it take for an unflattering post to make it into a public spectacle?  

My friends can be assured that I will never be using the Promote and Share feature.  I feel that it’s not my place to give “news” (good or bad) about another person.  If that person wanted to share it with the world, he or she would be shouting it from the rooftops.

Privacy issues are cropping up everywhere in life.  Please take a few minutes of your time to download the free Privacy Guide located at the top of this page.  It will give you tips and suggestions on how you can keep your most valuable commodity, your privacy, safe both on-line and off.