Dive Brief:
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Facebook is beginning a new policy of allowing users greater control over which ads they see by giving them the option to reject topics Facebook has chosen for ad placement.
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The move will begin in the U.S. over the next several weeks and expand globally after.
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The social network, which continues to try to find the sweet spot between pleasing users and making money through ad revenue, will also mine data from websites and apps users visit and use it to determine how to target ads. So far, Facebook has used information from user pages and activities only on Facebook, as well as personal information like gender, age, and location.
Dive Insight:
Users might welcome the greater control they will eventually have by opting out of ads they see on their Facebook pages based on certain topics. But some users, and certainly privacy advocates, won’t like Facebook’s plan to glean data from outside websites and apps.
Facebook has a history of irritating users and backing off some of its plans to increase revenue through ads. We’ll see how this one flies. In any case, it’s another wrinkle for marketers as they look to find ways to make Facebook useful to retailers.