Shortly thereafter, a Wall Street Journal investiga-
tion found that some of the most popular Facebook
applications (apps) had been transmitting user IDs—
identifying information which could provide access
to people’s names and, in some cases, their friends’
names—to dozens of advertising and Internet
tracking companies. Sharing user IDs is in violation
of Facebook’s privacy policies.
All these privacy flaps have not diminished
advertiser interest. Facebook serves ads on each
user’s home page and on the sidebars of user
profiles. In addition to an image and headline from
the advertiser, Facebook ads include the names of
any user’s friends who have clicked on a button indi-
cating they like the brand or ad. A Nielsen Co. study
found that including information about individuals a
person knows in an ad boosted recall of the ad by 68
percent and doubled awareness of a brand’s message.
To determine what ads to serve to particular people,
Facebook abstracts profile information into key-
words, and advertisers match ads to those keywords.
No individual data is shared with any advertiser.