INSTANT PERSONALIZATION

Image Source [1]

Facebook Instant Personalization was launched in April of 2010 and is now gradually being rolled out. In practice, how this works is, if you are logged into Facebook from within a browser session and then visit one of the Facebook Instant Personalization partner sites, you’ll receive a notification the first time that “personalization” is going on. You will be prompted with the option to disable it, and if you don’t, Facebook instant personalization will run and personalize that partner website to you based on information from your Facebook profile. 

According to Facebook, “Your information can only be used to present you with a more personalized experience and cannot be transferred to advertisers or used for any other purposes.”

Image Source [1]

For an instant, if you have stated through Facebook interest page that ‘I like Musical art, Bryan Adams ‘Summer of 69’. If you visit the any of the online Radio site like Pandora, the first song you will hear is ‘Summer of 69’ or something that Pandora thinks is similar to your Musical interests and personalize the further browsing experience. 

Many of us entirely unaware the feature even exists. However, this raises concerns with the potential for targeted adverts and more of your data handed out to other websites. As of now only certain sites can access this, and permissions need to be granted to do this. This can be turn it off in Privacy settings.

Since Facebook is a free service to its users, some would agree that it’s reasonable for Facebook to offer targeted advertising to enrich their ad-supported business model and available advertising inventory. The concept behind Instant Personalization is compelling: it offers the promise of a personalized web, where sites know what you’re interested in as soon as you arrive. But it’s rife with privacy issues.

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RESOURCE (EXTERNAL LINKS)

[1] Facebook Instant Personalization - Referred on 2015-02-15

[2] WikiPedia  - Referred on 2015-02-15