POSTED BY Rebecca Ferrante
Facebook announced it will soon relaunch Atlas, an advertising technology that allows the company’s advertising partners to send ads to Facebookers anywhere the service can “see” them on the Web – on their desktops, tablets or phones. Essentially, advertisers will use Atlas to display advertisements for a specific new product to a specific group of people based on information Facebook and Atlas have already collected about them from prior online conduct, including age, current physical location and other preferences.
How it works. When a user logs into Facebook with their phone a special device identifier is registered on the Facebook servers. The identifier works to “track” the would-be customer so that if another app on their phone prompts or triggers an advertisement, Facebook uses the information about the customer to find the best ad to display on their device. This includes ads based on where the would-be customer is physically standing. This, and the storage and use of the collected personal data used to do so, raises privacy concerns.
What it does. When an Atlas ad is displayed, it places one or more persistent cookies (or similar technologies) on the device to recognize it each time the ad is displayed. The information collected includes, but may not be limited to: the device’s IP address, cookie IDs, unique identifiers associated with the browser or device, browser type and language, operating system, website URLs, app name, the specific ad posted to the site or app, the date and time of delivery, and unique identifiers associated with the products and services that Facebook advertising partners provide the user. All fairly standard cookies-related marketing, now enabled on mobile devices where cookies where otherwise inoperable.
The next generation “tracker” offers enhanced mechanisms across multiple user platforms and has greater visibility into the users’ behavior, preferences and even location. In fact, Atlas’ privacy statement discloses the practice of collecting the following data:
a) the pages you view and links you click when using websites and services belonging to our advertising partners,
b) the search terms you enter when using internet search services,
c) characteristics of the contacts you most frequently interact with through communications or social networking services,
d) demographic or interest data, including any you may have provided when creating an account with one of our affiliates or partners (e.g. age, ZIP or postal code, gender),
e) contextual information associated with your activities on partner websites;
f) a general geographic location derived from your IP address, and/or
g) demographic or interest data acquired from partners and other companies (such as the population or other characteristics of the area where you live).
Meanwhile, Facebook has said it won’t disclose people’s identity to advertisers.
Privacy concerns? If one opts in to this degree of monitoring by choosing to maintain a Facebook page or to shop online, take note. There is a regulating body overseeing privacy and ensuring Facebook has implemented administrative and technical processes “designed to prevent unauthorized merging of page views, clicks and search terms with personally identifying information.” The NAI Code of Conduct set of self-regulatory principles to which all NAI member companies must agree to uphold in order to be members, requires notice and choice with respect to Interest-Based Advertising, limits the types of data that member companies can use for advertising purposes, and imposes a host of substantive restrictions on member companies’ collection, use, and transfer of data used for Interest-Based Advertising. Reportedly, the NAI has a robust compliance program, including sanctions and mechanisms to ensure members abide by the Code.
