Online retailers and publishers are pushing back
against Facebook Inc. efforts to track users across the Internet,
fearing that the data it vacuums up to target ads will give the social network
too much of an edge. Web traffic experts say there is less data flowing from
some sites to Facebook, suggesting they have been reprogrammed to hold back
information.
Facebook has long kept track of the websites its users visit
when they aren't on the social network. Three months ago, it began using the
data to build more detailed user profiles, allowing advertisers to target
people with more personalized marketing pitches. That has rankled some
retailers, advertisers and Internet publishers, which worry that the wider use
of browsing history will hand Facebook, and potentially their own rivals, more
information about existing and prospective customers.
In response, some businesses appear to have changed their
sites to send less data to Facebook; others say they are considering such
moves. The concern underscores the love-hate relationship between website
owners and Facebook. Publishers, for instance, like it when their content is
shared among Facebook's 1.3 billion users, as they hope to win new readers. And
online retailers have had success combining their data with the social
network's to track customers online.
But both groups are wary of Facebook's huge store of data.
While other websites keep track of individuals who stop by, noting them by
their computers, the difference is that Facebook has real names—allowing it to
do more with the information that accumulates about a person's browsing and
shopping habits.
Facebook says it hasn't yet begun using data from other
sites. When it does, it will let publishers opt out of the system, a spokesman
said, though doing so might reduce how much of their content is seen by other
Facebook users.
Publishers and advertisers that want users to share content
on Facebook install a small bit of Facebook code, called a pixel tag, on their
sites; the pixel is often associated with Facebook's "Like" and
"Share" buttons. Many websites have installed the code, allowing the
social network to record a significant amount of Internet activity.
Facebook places another bit of code, known as a cookie, on
its users' computers. When a user visits other websites that have Facebook's
code, Facebook can recognize the cookie, building a record of how the user
surfs the Web. Facebook also can track users on their phones.
Some publishers and retailers appear to have curbed how much
data they are sending to Facebook, according to Ghostery, a maker of privacy
software. Ghostery's software recognizes Facebook's pixel code.
Ghostery says that across the Web, Facebook's pixels are
sending data back to Facebook as often as ever. But Ghostery says that since
the spring, it has seen Facebook's code less often on certain well-known sites.
Moreover, Facebook ads can be more cost-effective because
they allow advertisers to target specific demographic groups in narrow
geographic locations. Marketers will spend more on digital ads than either
newspapers or magazines this year, according to eMarketer, in part because
advertisers can target digital ads to smaller subsections of potential
customers.
To be sure, many other companies, including Google Inc.,
track the browsing histories of Internet users to help target advertising. But
advertisers say sending information to Google doesn't scare them as much as
sending information to Facebook, mainly because Facebook knows users' real
identities.
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