Google unveils plans for user names, comments to appear in ads
Tuesday, 15 October 2013 00:08
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REUTERS: Google Inc plans to launch new product-endorsement ads incorporating photos, comments and names of its users, in a move to match the “social” ads pioneered by rival Facebook Inc that is raising some privacy concerns.
The changes, which Google announced in a revised terms of service policy on Friday, set the stage for Google to introduce “shared endorsements” ads on its sites as well as millions of other websites that are part of Google’s display advertising network.
The new types of ads would use personal information of the members of Google+, the social network launched by the company in 2011.
If a Google+ user has publicly endorsed a particular brand or product by clicking on the +1 button, that person’s image might appear in an ad. Reviews and ratings of restaurants or music that Google+ users share on other Google services, such as in the Google Play online store, would also become fair game for advertisers.
The ads are similar to the social ads on Facebook, the world’s No. 1 social network, which has 1.15 billion users.
Those ads are attractive to marketers, but they unfairly commercialise Internet users’ images, said Marc Rotenberg, the Director of online privacy group EPIC.
