Facebook's New Privacy Rules

As the 30th Jan Facebook has changed its privacy policy allowing the site to track the online movements of its users, tracking the websites they visit by default. Users have to go to The European Digital Advertising Alliance or the equivalent for none European users to block Facebook from tracking users movements.

Facebook currently allows brands to advertise within the news feeds of its users. This new privacy policy change could give users a tailored and personal experience exposing them to the adverts they want to see and would be beneficial to brands as well as allowing them to target consumers more effectively.

This is system is similar to what supermarkets, other shops and websites do currently when a consumer signs up to their loyalty card or by creating an account online by giving consumers vouchers or sending out emails with the latest offers on, based on the customers past purchases or based on what information the consumer has decided to input when creating their account.

The issue that arises is that users of Facebook may see this as an invasion of their privacy, not that an internet user has much online as data is already stored about sites they visit, where as with loyalty cards and online accounts the user does have opt out within the site and the user is actively signing up and know what data will be collected and submitted, users may not want to be tracked by Facebook or see advertisements within their news feeds.