A new Facebook policy allows advertisers to use members' pictures without permission.
This item appears to be based on a bit of confusion over Facebook's 'social ads,' a system that was launched nearly two years ago and which may display members' profile pictures to their friends in conjunction with ads when those members have taken some action that associates them with the advertised product or service:We've run advertisements from our own advertising system for more than a year that let your friends know if you have a direct connection with a product or service, in the same way that your friends learn through your News Feed if you're connected with another friend or an organization's Facebook Page. For example, if one of your friends becomes a fan of a Page, you may see an ad with your friend's profile photo that indicates the action that friend has taken.Facebook has not recently agreed to any change in policy allowing third-party advertisers to make unrestricted use of all photographs posted by members, as suggested by the example quoted above. As Facebook stated in its corporate blog:The advertisements that started these rumors were not from Facebook but [were] placed within applications by third parties. Those ads violated our policies by misusing profile photos, and we already required the removal of those deceptive ads from third-party applications before this rumor began spreading.Facebook users can prevent their profile photos from appearing in association with social ads by selecting the following options:Settings -> Privacy Settings -> Ads (left column) -> Ads & Friends (Edit) -> Set to 'No one'
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