Advertisers pay for personal Facebook information

FACEBOOK users beware: advertisers are watching your page and they know what you need.

Relationship status single? Dating agency ads pop up on your Facebook page.

Update your status to engaged and the spruiking is suddenly about wedding gowns, weight loss and planning hens' nights.

Married? Then you must be thinking about babies, credit cards and mortgages.

Australia's six million Facebook users are being targeted by businesses, which pay tens of thousands of dollars a month for access to personal information.

The advertising strategies are so refined businesses can target their products according to sex, age, location, relationship status, job title, workplace or university.

Even subjects such as favourite music or pastimes can be drilled into for the purposes of marketing.

Advertisers respond to a Facebook page update in the blink of an eye.

The Sunday Telegraph witnessed one user change their status from single to engaged last week.
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Within half an hour, an ad for a dating agency was replaced by one for a building inspection company that asked: "Buying a property?".

Shannan Human, 30, of Dee Why, said ads on her profile page changed drastically when she changed such identifying details as her relationship status.

"Since I've changed my status to married I keep getting all this baby stuff, and I don't want to have a baby," she said.

"And when I changed to engaged I used to get stacks of wedding gown ads and weight-loss ads.

"I find it a bit of a pest, to be honest. I use Facebook primarily as a social networking site to keep in touch with my friends and family.

"I feel like it's an invasion of my privacy if I don't want my stuff sold to a third party - I'm there to socialise with friends, not to make money for other people."

Ben Bevins, 30, became engaged to his fiance Lauren in December and noticed the ads for wedding suits and rings straightaway.

"It was actually a good break from all the muscle-building ads and 'single women in your area' ads," he said, laughing.

Facebook regional vice-president Paul Borrud defended the advertising policy.

He said an engaged woman receiving ads for wedding shoes was better than her being bombarded by ads for singles nights.

"The internet has moved from anonymity to authenticity," Mr Borrud said. "It is about real people; the advertising is going to a real person, and what you were into 10 years ago - movies, music, books - has changed.

"So it gives the advertiser the chance to engage with a community based on what they are today."

He refused to say how many complaints Facebook received about advertising, saying users were more likely to find the ads useful if they applied to them specifically.

He said online-ad spending had increased by 18.5 per cent in the past year and in Australia was worth $1.8 billion.

Australian companies that recently embarked on big Facebook campaigns include Coca-Cola, KFC and Cricket Australia.

CA's official fan page, which is part of its marketing strategy, has 26,467 "fans", who are given information about ticketing, events and special offers.

KFC Australia has 86,084 fans and Coca-Cola enticed people to join their page by offering free surf lessons in conjunction with local surf schools.

Mr Borrud refused to reveal how much campaigns were worth, or how many local companies every one of them is an ad man's dream advertised on the site, but admitted the growth had been "exciting".

Information on the site says campaigns can cost anywhere from $200 to more than $100,000, and can be paid per click or per impression.

But Facebook groups have begun protesting against the ads, with incensed users labelling it a "violation". The group People Against Intrusive Advertising on Facebook states: "Facebook is getting greedy at our expense".

The petition for no advertising on Facebook says the site is for networking, not marketing.

Facebook tells users in its conditions that it supplies information in their profiles to third parties.

"We do this for purposes such as aggregating how many people in a network like a band or movie and personalising advertisements and promotions so that we can provide you Facebook," the privacy policy reads."We believe this benefits you.

"You can know more about the world around you and, where there are advertisements, they're more likely to be interesting to you.

"For example, if you put a favorite movie in your profile, we might serve you an advertisement highlighting a screening of a similar one in your town."