New York: If you are in the list of those who showing displeasure over the facebook’s ‘sponsored stories’ ads, so there is a good news for you that the social media giant finally decides to end the feature from April.
Privacy advocates have never liked Facebook’s Sponsored Stories advertising unit and, as of April this year, those units will no longer feature on the social network.
The ads show how your Facebook friends interact with a sponsored page, app or event. If one of your Facebook friends “likes” a company or checks into a music venue or restaurant, his action would appear along with their profile picture as an advertisement in the feeds of their Facebook friends.
As of now, domain and open graph Sponsored Stories will no longer be able to be created. Existing domain and open graph sponsored stories will cease to have delivery after April 9th.”
According to a statement, the social network will be bringing the essence of Sponsored Stories – social context – “to all ads”, refining the process so advertisers can continue to accurately target the demographics they require.
The feature became controversial, particularly among privacy advocates.
In 2011, the year the feature launched, the company was hit with a class-action lawsuit that claimed the ads violated users rights by publicizing their “likes” and online behavior without any opportunity to opt-out or for compensation. Facebook made about $230 million on Sponsored Stories between Jan. 2011 – August 2012, according to Reuters reading of the court documents.
Introduced three years ago, it attracted a class action lawsuit in which 150 million users were awarded $15 in compensation, costing the company around $20 million in an out-of-court settlement.
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