There is a very large controversy surrounding targeted advertising and whether or not it is an invasion of privacy to allow brands and companies to use data from Facebook and other social media platforms to target specific personas with their ads. After reading the article and reviewing both points, I believe that targeted advertising on social media platforms like Facebook are not an invasion of privacy and there for should not be further regulated. 

            The purpose of this paper it to argue that point, that targeted advertising on social media platforms like Facebook are not an invasion of privacy and there for should not be further regulated. I will successfully argue this point using (a) reviewing hyper-targeting and how it is used in social media platforms and (b) the way that consumers information is used and received through social media. 

            The use of hyper-targeting is much more efficient and cost effective than traditional methods of advertising, “…traditional media advertising is based on target audience concentration…Messages exposed to audience members who do not fit the profile are essentially wasted” (Pardun, 164). Advertisers and marketers waste so much money when they advertise to a general market rather than a targeted niche (Pardun, 165). With hyper-targeting, brands are able to obtain information from social networking sites, such as Facebook, about users and their patterns on social media, 

Registration information (basic information gathered when users set up an account), profile information (posted by the user on his/her profile: favorite movies, music, books, etc.), and behavioral data (things that users do or look at online, pages they're fans of, events they respond to, etc.) (Gold, 2009, as cited in Pardun, 2014, p. 164). 

Whenever someone joins a social media platform, their name is immediately put out into the web, anyone can search their name and find their profile. They can find out where someone lives, works, the language(s) they speak, along with their gender, birthday, interests, friends, friends of friends and connections (Facebook, 2012 as cited in Pardun, 2014, p.164). When a user signs up for an account, they automatically put this information out there for the world to see, they post updates and photos from their homes and restaurants they frequently visit in their hometowns. 

Social Networking. Advertisers can take little information about a social media user and put together a collection of targeted ads that will most likely appeal to their interests, wants, and or needs, 

For instance, a Facebook profile contains biographical information that advertisers would love to know. According to the profile, this user is a young, art school-educated woman who lives in a big city. Based solely on this information, advertisers could send her numerous targeted ads that may appeal to her (GCF Global). 

Facebook and other social media platforms use this information that a user puts out there or interacts with to generate ads that will appeal to that specific audience. “People have an average of 130 Facebook fans. When they “like” a brand, that fact spreads to the news feeds of those friends, and those friends may spread it further” (Pardun, 166). 

If a user just clicks on an ad or a page that a friend of theirs likes, even on accident, they will start receiving similar advertisements because Facebook takes that as they’re interested in the ad. If you see a pop-up on Facebook that a friend likes an ad, the user is more likely to remember it and assosciate a positive reaction towards the ad (Hof, 2011 as cited in Pardun, 2014, p.166). 

Optimization and Use of Information

            As soon as a user signs up for a social media account, they’re granting the platform to use their information and accepting that they will now be included in the population being targeted by advertisements. “Remember that all of the information you submit to the Internet can be tracked, whether it be search engine requests, social media updates, or the websites you visit” (GFC Global). Facebook provides the tools and metrics to advertisers and marketers so they can review the performance of their ads and marketing techniques (Pardun, 166). Some of these metrics include: 

social percent: the percentage of impressions where the ad was shown with names of viewers' friends; 

clicks: the number of times users click on ads;

impressions: the number of times an ad is shown to a user; 

click-through rate (CTR): the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions in a given time period; 

average cost per click (CPC): ad cost relative to the number of clicks. (Pardun, 166-167).

The use of these metrics provides companies and advertisers the information to see if their ads are performing well and to the degree that they’re needing them to. These metrics are very important to advertisers, they provide the necessary information to show how an ad is performing and if it’s getting the engagement that they need and aimed for. If they find that the ads aren’t performing as well, they can change their targeted demographics and move around their budget allocations to a higher performing ad (Pardun, 167). 

            Consumer Gain. A big question is, what do consumers gain from this advertising and social media networks sharing their personal data with marketers and companies?

A recent report from McCann Worldgroup revealed that 71 percent of consumers are willing to share shopping data with a brand online, and 86 percent see that there are major benefits associated with sharing this data (McCann Truth Central, 2011, as cited in Pardun, 2014, p.167). 

Hyper-targeting in advertisements are there mainly to show advertisements to a consumer that has to do with their interests, pages they follow, where they live or places they frequently visit. Sharing data with advertisers help them to narrow down their targeted markets and the consumers that are interested in purchasing their products. In a survey done by Statista, of the 2,750 respondents, only 20% have never made a purchase based on an online or social media advertisement (Statista, 2019). 

            In a study done by the Harvard Business Review, it was discovered that when they revealed first-party sharing to consumers that the advertisement they were receiving was based on their previous activity, “click-through rates increased by 11%, the time spent viewing the advertised product rose by 34%, and revenue from the product grew by 38%” (HBR, 2018). Consumers aren’t opposed to being targeted, they even enjoy ads that are tailored to their likes and interests, they just want to know that the information was obtained from their online browsing, shopping or posting habits. 

            Consumer Controls. Consumers have the ability to hide ads they dislike or are not interested in, in a very simple way. All they have to do is click to hide that certain ad or ads from that company and they’ll never be shown again (Pardun, 167). They also provide the option to request to see more ads like a certain one if the consumer likes the sponsored ad they’re currently viewing. For those who feel that Facebook and other social medias are invading their privacy and should not be allowed to use their information to create targeted ads, when they signed up for the platform, in the privacy policy, it states,

We only provide data to our advertising partners or customers after we have removed your name or any other personally identifying information from it, or have combined it with other people's data in a way that it is no longer associated with you. Similarly, when we receive data about you from our advertising partners or customers, we keep the data for 180 days. After that, we combine the data with other people's data in a way that it is no longer associated with you (Facebook, 2011, as cited in Pardun, 2014, p.168).

All in all, Facebook and other social media platforms are not hiding in any way that they’re sharing information with advertisers, most consumers would prefer to have ads tailored to their likes and interests rather than random advertisements that have nothing to do with them. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, the main question still is, is the collecting and sharing of all this information an invasion of consumers and their privacy? I believe that the answer is still, no. When people decide to sign up for public social media platforms, they’re agreeing to the fact that their information is now published online for anyone in the world to find. They are also consenting to these platforms to use their browsing and interactions to tailor advertisements to their likes and interests. If a Facebook user uses the ‘check-in’ feature every time they visit their hometown bar, they may start to receive advertisements for alcohol or bar-related products and places. They chose to put that information out there and now it’s being used to advertise products and places that advertisers feel that they will like and relate to. After reviewing multiple different articles and sources, I still believe that targeted advertising on social media platforms like Facebook are not an invasion of privacy and there for should not be further regulated. 

References

John, L. K., Kim, T., & Barasz, K. (2017, December 21). Targeting ads without creeping out your customers. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://hbr.org/2018/01/ads-that-dont-overstep.

Pardun, C. J. (2014). Chapter 10, Hyper-Niche Markets and Advertising. In Advertising and Society: An Introduction (2ndedt., pp. 161–174). Wiley Blackwell. 

Published by Statista Research Department, & 24, S. (2021, September 24). Online or social media targeting effectiveness 2019. Statista. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/303726/social-media-targeting-effectiveness/#professional. 

The now: What is targeted advertising? GCFGlobal.org. (n.d.). Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/thenow/what-is-targeted-advertising/1/.