So recently did you notice something new in Facebook? In January 2011, Facebook announced the  “Sponsored Stories”. Apparently it is now being running. If one of your friend likes some product, Facebook will show the advertisement along with your friend’s name. Do you see the danger ? If your answer is NO, let me explain.

If you liked some product that has been shown in your Facebook page, this means that Facebook may use YOUR NAME to advertise that product. Is it ethical ? I don’t know, but it seems a bit worrying and uncomfortable. If you feel so, you should double check your account settings, and apart from Facebook, third party advertisers may use your name and information to advertise, this is a threat and now that’s annoying.

I don’t have an ethics or privacy obsession but I believe that many of you will object to this idea, having your name displayed along with absurd or inappropriate ads. This is not the first time that we had our goodwill abused, many of the companies collect our personal information from cell phone numbers to email addresses to sell them to third party advertisers or to send their advertisements.

So, if want to prevent this, Go to Account Setting > Facebook Ads tab then choose the followings:

Now maybe your name is safe now, maybe not! But also you may want to know that what data you have put to Facebook, now again go to Account Settings, scroll down to the bottom of the page, You will see “Download Your Information”, next to it ,click the link “learn more”, and in the next page, you can proceed to download, note that it will take some time, Facebook will gather all the information that belongs to you. Note that all the data you have shared belongs to Facebook, read the terms of conditions. Being aware of your rights, can prevent headaches in the future. We all deserve respect for our privacy.

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