Facebook outlines its ad targeting strategy on one handy page, presents a complex privacy picture

Facebook privacy padlockTo say that Facebook has to tread lightly around privacy issues is an understatement, especially with a targeted ad push underway. Rather than navigate that minefield once more, the social network hopes to skip it entirely by posting an overview of how the ad system tracks habits while retaining our anonymity. For the most part, Facebook walks the fine line carefully. Its Facebook Exchange auction system relies on a unique, untraceable browser ID to target ads to specific people without ever getting their identity; both a mechanism targeting ads beyond Facebook and a Datalogix deal to track the ad conversion rate use anonymous e-mail address hashes that keep advertisers happy without making the addresses readable to prying eyes. The initiative sounds like it’s on the right course, although there’s caveats at work. Opting out of any Facebook Exchange ads requires tracking down individual ad providers, which isn’t likely to result in many of us leaving the ad revenue stream. Likewise, those who’d object even to the completely anonymous ad profiling don’t have a say in the matter. With those concerns in mind, it’s doubtful there will be many significant objections in the future — Facebook knows its advertising money train can only keep churning if its members are comfortable enough to come along for the ride.

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Facebook outlines its ad targeting strategy on one handy page, presents a complex privacy picture originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Canadian Government Accidentally Ran a Bunch of Ads on the Pirate Bay [Piracy]

The Pirate Bay tends to be a website that national governments aren’t particularly fond of. That being the case, it’d be surprising if a national government ran ads on the site, advertising an Economic Action Plan, right? Canada did that, but not on purpose. More »

New Apple Ads: Thumbs, Ears, Physics, and Photo Shoots [Video]

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Facebook’s new mobile ad network goes into beta, serves advertisements on third party sites and apps

Facebook's new mobile ad network goes into beta, serves advertisements on third party sites and apps

Facebook already sports advertisements baked into its own website and mobile apps, and now it’ll begin serving ads on other handset-optimized websites and smartphone applications. TechCrunch reports that the firm has begun testing a new ad network that leverages user data to display hyper-relevant ads on third party turf. Instead of relying on vanilla tracking cookies to gain insight into visitor interests, the platform accesses information including age, gender, likes, location, which apps friends have used and other data points when users are logged into a site or application with Facebook credentials. Zuckerberg and Co.’s solution lets advertisers bid on certain demographics and uses existing networks such as iAds and AdMob to serve appropriate ads based on anonymous ID’s tied to Facebook accounts. For now, Menlo Park’s new program is limited to the all-important mobile market, but don’t be surprised if the service finds its way to the desktop.

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Facebook’s new mobile ad network goes into beta, serves advertisements on third party sites and apps originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Sep 2012 22:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What Happens When You Tattoo a Website Ad on Your Face—And That Website Goes Out of Business [Wtf]

Back in the halcyon days of the dotcom boom, we did a lot of crazy things. We spent millions of dollars on extravagant nerd parties. We lavished mountains of funding and cocaine on startups selling diapers to puppies. And, eventually, we skinvertised ads on the backs and arms and faces of human beings. And then those people had to go on living their lives. More »

Surprise! Apple Fans Turn Samsung’s iPhone 5 Attack Ad on Its Head [IPhone]

Samsung isn’t taking the iPhone 5 launch lying down, and it shouldn’t surprise you to learn that nobody else is taking anything lying down either, ever. Not long after Samsung released its hackle-raising iPhone-basher, the ad was being flipped on its head by ardent Apple knights in iPhone armor. More »

Does Ad Tracking Really Bother You? [Chatroom]

The thought of being watched is always sort of unsettling. The thought of being watched by enemies or the government can be downright scary, but the thought of being watched by advertisers is anywhere from gross to “meh.” More »

Samsung Throws Down the Gauntlet with Its New iPhone-Bashing Ad [Samsung]

Not too long ago, Samsung faced a big loss against Apple in court, and now, it’s just sat through the announcement of the new iPhone, which sold out its preorders in a matter of hours. What’s a rival manufacturer to do? That’s easy; if you’re Samsung, you attack. More »

LG Optimus G makes its commercial debut in Korea (video)

LG Optimus G makes its commercial debut in Korea

Well, we know there’s an LG event right around the corner and, if we were the betting type, we’d put our money on the flagship Optimus G making its stateside debut. Perhaps the biggest clue to what the company has up its sleeve is that the quad-core Snapdragon S4-powered handset just made its video debut. The sleek 4.7 inch handset is staring in its own commercial, currently posted on YouTube, that will be airing in the manufacturer’s homeland shortly after launch. The brief clip doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know, but we can’t find any reason complain about a few extra peeks at it before release. Check out the video after the break.

Continue reading LG Optimus G makes its commercial debut in Korea (video)

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LG Optimus G makes its commercial debut in Korea (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Canada’s Competition Bureau sues Bell, Rogers and Telus over alleged misleading advertising

Allegations of misleading advertising practices among Canada’s big telecom companies has been a recurring subject for some time, and it’s now been brought to the fore once again in the form of a multi-million dollar lawsuit. The country’s Competition Bureau announced today that, after a five-month investigation, it has decided to sue all three carriers and the industry group that represents them over ads that promote so-called premium texting services. In addition to demanding that such ads stop, the government agency is seeking full customer refunds for any charges incurred and a $10 million penalty from each carrier, plus an additional $1 million from the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association. For its part, the CWTA has unsurprisingly taken issue with the lawsuit, saying in a statement that it reached out to the Bureau last year to discuss the issue, and that its actions today “could disrupt the text message services, such as severe weather alerts, charitable donations, flight status updates or sports scores, on which millions of Canadian consumers depend.” You can find that full statement, and the Competition Bureau’s announcement of the lawsuit, at the links below.

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Canada’s Competition Bureau sues Bell, Rogers and Telus over alleged misleading advertising originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Sep 2012 16:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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