Comments on: Google is Secretly Mining Facebook Data

By: Google Confirms Facebook Violation, No Personal Data Stored - The Unofficial Facebook Blog

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 20:29:01 +0000

[...] this week I reported that applications were secretly transferring personal data to Google via their AdWords system and [...]

By: theharmonyguy

theharmonyguy — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 03:16:59 +0000

Thanks to Naval for the clarification; from my research, I’d been led to believe that Google was storing the data. My post has been updated with his comments as well.

I’m still not sure if transmitting the data to another application without notification or consent would be consistent with the TOS to begin with, but Facebook will have to answer that question. I appreciate Compare People’s responsiveness to all this, though.

Either way, I think this again shows users how much systems like AdSense can collect and track information about them, so it’s good for people to be aware of it.

By: theharmonyguy

theharmonyguy — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 02:16:59 +0000

Thanks to Naval for the clarification; from my research, I'd been led to believe that Google was storing the data. My post has been updated with his comments as well.

I'm still not sure if transmitting the data to another application without notification or consent would be consistent with the TOS to begin with, but Facebook will have to answer that question. I appreciate Compare People's responsiveness to all this, though.

Either way, I think this again shows users how much systems like AdSense can collect and track information about them, so it's good for people to be aware of it.

By: Naval

Naval — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:37:34 +0000

Nick

This is a little overblown - we’re feeding random bits of information from the profile (and not personally identifiable stuff, user IDs, or the whole profile, to do ad-targeting via Google_hints. Many apps are doing this with many advertising networks.

Also, Google has assured us that they do not cache or store any of this data.

Still, until we make sure that it’s not a real violation, we’re disabling it.

By: west

west — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:11:48 +0000

I wish i knew how they are doing that!! I would want targeted ads within my application based on the users profile info as well.. I have been trying to do this with adsense but I do not see how it can be accomplished…

who cares if asense is the software I use to provide my targeted ads? Its the best Ad network out there righ tnow.. and as an application developer i have no way of providing targeted ads on my site using the new facebook ad programs… so they need to step up before more data goes to google…

By: Naval

Naval — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:37:34 +0000

Nick

This is a little overblown - we're feeding random bits of information from the profile (and not personally identifiable stuff, user IDs, or the whole profile, to do ad-targeting via Google_hints. Many apps are doing this with many advertising networks.

Also, Google has assured us that they do not cache or store any of this data.

Still, until we make sure that it's not a real violation, we're disabling it.

By: west

west — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:11:48 +0000