Facebook: We're Not Letting Advertisers Use Your Photos, Really We're Not

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 27 Jul 2009

Popular social networking site Facebook has come out to announce that rumors about it having changed is policies in order to allow 3rd party advertisers to user your photos are untrue. The only thing that Facebook has changed recently is its policy on vanity URLs – you can now change your vanity URL onetime, if you are unhappy with your original choice. But the site’s policy regarding advertising has not changed.

Facebook advises all users to not believe any Wall Post or other message that looks something like this: “FACEBOOK has agreed to let third party advertisers use your posted pictures WITHOUT your permission.”

The thing is that all these rumors, false as they may be, are based on facts: like the fact that the photos of some Facebook users ended up on 3rd party ads. This of course blew out of proportion and everybody pointed the finger at Facebook saying that they must have let these advertisers use the images.

Official word from Facebook is that “the advertisements that started these rumors were not from Facebook but placed within applications by third parties and that the ads violated the company’s policies “by misusing profile photos.” Consequently Facebook asked for the removal of the ads included in 3rd party applications; this step was taken before the rumors started to circulate.

“We are as concerned as many of you are about any potential threat to your experience on Facebook and the protection of your privacy. That's why we prohibit ads on Facebook Platform that cause a bad user experience, are misleading, or otherwise violate our policies. Along with removing ads, we've recently prohibited two entire advertising networks from providing services to applications on Facebook Platform because they were not compliant with our policies and failed to correct their practices. We're committed to remaining vigilant in enforcing our policies to prevent bad ads from appearing on Facebook—whether served by us or a third party. But we also need your help. If you ever see a misleading ad or believe it violates our policies, report it to us,” explained Facebook.


Latest News


Sony's 'Attack of the Blockbusters Sale' Slashes Prices in Half for a Ton of PS4 Games

17 Aug 2017

How Samsung's New T5 Compares to the Old T3 Portable SSD (Infographic)

17 Aug 2017

See all