In the past 12 hours, about ten friends (and counting) have sent me a copy of this ad on Facebook for a company called “AppSumo.” I have nearly 5000 “friends” on Facebook, a problem I’ve written about in the past, but seeing this ad threw me.
Apparently, this is *not* part of Facebook’s social ads, where people can buy ads targeting friends of particular people on third party sites – after all, this appears on Facebook.com. And those ads can only use my profile picture, which that pic is most definitely not (it was my author photo for my last book). Also, apparently, I have the ability to turn this off in my Facebook settings. However, since I am essentially “Facebook bankrupt” and have never really figured out how to fix that fact, I have never visited my “ad” settings.
Now I have. Here’s what settings says about ads using my name and picture:
“Ads shown by third parties
Facebook does not give third party applications or ad networks the right to use your name or picture in ads. If we allow this in the future, the setting you choose will determine how your information is used.”
So this AppSumo use seems to be a pretty clear violation, no? I mean, it’s not allowed, right? Or is it that they are *not* a third party application or ad network, but rather, something else? Here’s a pic of my current settings, which again, says Facebook does not allow this, but “if we do in the future…” my settings would apply.
Is the future now? How can AppSumo target just my friends, without Facebook helping?
I’ve asked Facebook. And if anyone from “AppSumo” is out there, can you please tell me what this is about and how you did this? And where you got that picture, because, that’s not my Facebook profile picture….and it’s owned by a photographer, not by you….
Oh, and who wrote the copy? I mean, “Do you love John Battelle?” Migod…..One note…perhaps this is OK because I also have a Facebook “fan page” which makes me a “Facebook public figure?” I dunno. Any thoughts out there? Does AppSumo owe me (and the photographer) a cut?!
Update: Couple things. First, this is clearly not the first time that AppSumo has pulled this stuff. Matt Mullenweg pointed me to this story about them doing a similar thing with Tim Ferris. Second, Facebook has responded to me, agrees this is abuse, and is working with me to resolve the issue. Thanks Facebook and Matt!
