So apparently my random and pointless Facebook comments and status updates are worth A LOT of money.
Turns out there are companies out there that pay a heap of money to get data on all kinds of little tidbits found on Facebook and other social networking sites, blogs, product reviews--pretty much anywhere on the net where you have a profile and volunteer information.
According to a piece run on NPR this afternoon, "There are now companies that mine social sites for data to sell to marketers."
What in the world could they possibly find that would be worth selling, you ask?
Yes, I wondered the same thing. Well, let's see. Today, a friend wrote on her status update that she can't get the song "I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map. I'M THE MAP!" out of her head. I replied (along with several others) with some alternative lyrics such as, "Backpack, backpack. Backpack, backpack."
Just from that little exchange, these site crawlers, or whatever they are called, have determined that all of us who responded have small children. Guess what we'll be seeing soon on our Facebook sidebar? Ads for diapers, toys, GAP kids clothes, and who knows what else. We are a very attractive demographic!
How about this exchange I read just now:
Sara XXX needs $1000 to make the coming ski season better.
14 people respond.
All 15 of these people are now known to be definitely interested in winter sports. Not maybe because they shop at Scheels or because they live in Montana. Definitely. Now they'll probably see ads for Vail and Big Sky packages on their page.
The pressing issue for me is not privacy, although I suppose that should be my primary concern. I suppose I should care if just any random person can find out my age, sex, marital status, hobbies, religious affiliation, employer, and number of children. That's why I have a pretty blank profile. And also why I pretty much never take surveys or quizzes on Facebook.
But what I really want to know, where's my cut?? If my information is so valuable, why not just ask me? I'd sell my medical records if the price were right. (Don't worry, Grandma. You're shirt is still safe.)
So don't be mad if I don't join your pillow fight or accept your lil' cove fish or whatever it is people are sending now. I'm just stalling until I get a better offer.
Hmmm...interesting. I guess I've always thought that was just spyware. I actually don't find it much of a privacy invasion myself. It sounds strange, but I kind of like the idea that the ads can be personalized. I'm sure most of that is done by computers, anyway. I'm sure people aren't just sitting at their desks searching through people's sites.
ReplyDeleteOne of the weirdest things I've noticed is that I now suddenly see ads for Spanish classes and such. I recently started taking Spanish and haven't wrote anything about it on my Facebook, but I Googled English-to-Spanish dictionaries...
I had not heard about this before, but it does make sense. I really don't have any problem with this as anything anyone puts on Facebook can be public knowledge. It is a great idea for advertisers as they are way more likely to get responses if the people they are reaching out to are interested in their products. I wonder if these "site crawlers" as you called them mine for negative information as well. For instance if somebody said on their Facebook status, "I hate (insert product here)" if those advertisers would stay away from their profiles.
ReplyDeleteWeird concept. I know that Facebook puts ads on the side of my profile based on what television shows I put down under my "favorites". For instance, I put Fawlty Towers down and now I see ads for a "Don't mention the war" t-shirt with John Cleese doing his Hitler walk.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm a bit confused because don't people have to be friends with you to see a majority of your information, including your status?
Kayley,
ReplyDeleteNot sure about the status updates, but any time you do a quiz or anything like that, it makes your whole profile available to the quiz creator, who then can do whatever they want with that information. That's why before you finish the quiz there is always that part it asks about sharing your profile info.