Page 36 - AeM_May_2017

LEGISLATION

Advertising on Facebook:

What’s allowed and what’s not

Many consumers are critical of Facebook as they fear for • As long as you do not have an explicit consent
the security of their data. Accordingly, they are skeptical (which must be documented as legally safe), you
about the use of the network as a sales channel, reveals should not send any personal advertising messag-
a study by BBDO, Jelden TTC and Brand Foresight. es.

This means, dealers must guarantee that high safety
standards are in place to ease off the worries of users • A comment on a post also falls under these rules,
regarding the handling of their data. After all, they have hence, care must be taken to ensure that the adver-
known Facebook as an information medium and are tising is not concealed, since this could also be in
afraid that the flood of additional sales news will destroy breach of the prohibition of spoofing advertising.
this quality. Retention and data protection should there-
fore have top priority. • This also applies to a friend request. If the profile
name or the visible page does not have any recog-
There are just a handful of legally unproblematic possi- nizable advertising, the request is allowed. If a user
bilities for advertising on Facebook, as advertisers prob- accepts the request and then receives advertising
ably slowly realize: Permitted are advertising banners via by means of posts on the Timeline, it is however
the official Facebook advertising platform, providing the unlawful. Any unauthorized advertising constitutes a
legally easiest way to advertise. It is officially provided as friend request, if it is immediately recognizable as
a standard on all commercial websites, hence, it is gen- such.
erally unproblematic to run an official fan site at Face-
book and posting news on this site. The latest news will • When using Facebook's "Friend Finder" service
then appear in the "Timeline" of the users who are fans (which Facebook mainly uses to collect address
of the site. Although this news stream is already seen as data), not only Facebook is unlawful but also the
advertising, the user agreed in obtaining it by clicking on user who uses it to advertise his/her business, as
the "Like" button. the third parties involved unintentionally receive
emails.
Only under strict conditions it is allowed writing a direct
advertisement message to a user, namely when the user • This also applies to advertising by private users via
has given his/her consent. But for getting this permis- apps. When a user installs a Facebook app, it is
sion, the "Like" click on a company profile isn’t enough, possible that all friends of the Facebook user re-
as it only means that a user agrees to receive messages ceive the advertisements that the app user re-
in the Timeline, but not in other advertisements. This ceives. This represents an unauthorized advertise-
also applies to invitations of becoming a "fan" on a Face- ment of the advertiser in the face of the user's
book page. These are already advertisements for the friends, since they have not agreed to install the
company and are therefore inadmissible, although Face- app.
book offers this opportunity to get many fans easily. Any- Anyway, it all seems to be trickier than it seems on the
way, be aware that: spur of the moment. Just hang in there! ◊

By MediaBUZZ
36 May 2017 - (Cyber) Security & Data Protection