Social media advertising targets users based on their information provided on social media platforms. However, privacy concerns arise from the distribution of member information to third-party apps and platforms. The more information a user provides, the more targeted the ads. Third-party developers may also pose a risk to user privacy.
Social media advertising is a form of online advertising that delivers highly targeted advertisements based on information provided by members of a social media service. While social media advertising has been hailed by some as a revolution in direct marketing, it has also brought with it many privacy concerns. These concerns mainly stem from the distribution of member information acquired by third parties, such as apps and other platforms not created by the social media service itself.
The first step in social media advertising is to acquire members by encouraging people to sign up on a specific social medium such as a social networking site such as Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, a video sharing site such as YouTube, a photo sharing services like Flickr, a blog or even an email provider. These services first collect basic member contact information, such as name, email address, or phone number. The service will encourage the member to fill in other information fields that may be purely voluntary, such as age, gender, location, hobbies and interests. The more information a member provides about themselves, the more easily they will be inserted into a specific demographic for data aggregation and later targeted to social media.
Once data is collected from members of a specific social media service, it may be held on a secure server for a finite period of time, depending on the Terms and Conditions of the service, which must be agreed to upon member registration. The social media service matches member data with the specific demographics that its sponsors want to target for products or services. As a result, a social media member who listed “biking” among their hobbies and “Kansas” as their location might see advertisements appearing on the service website of a Kansas-based bike shop. The less detail provided by the member in their information profile, the lower the targeting of ads. For example, if a member only indicates that she is female, she may see advertisements for products or services that appeal to a broad cross section of women of various ages, locations and ethnicities.
While some social media insiders consider social media advertising to be quite benign, if unwelcome, the increase in social media usage over the last decade has raised concerns about information privacy. For example, sites like Facebook allow third-party application developers to create quizzes, games, and other accessories for members to use in exchange for access to account information. Because the restrictions and policies around what third-party developers do with this information are relatively murky, some worry that members could be left vulnerable to identity theft, spam, and other illegal or unethical practices.
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