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Google Sets Plan to Sell Users’ Endorsements Google to Sell Users’ Endorsements
(about 9 hours later)
SAN FRANCISCO — Google, following in Facebook’s footsteps, wants to sell users’ endorsements to marketers to help them hawk their wares. SAN FRANCISCO — Those long-forgotten posts on social networks, from the pasta someone photographed to the rant about her dentist, are forgotten no more. Social networks want to make them easier to find, and in some cases, to show them in ads.
On Friday, Google announced an update to its terms of service that allows the company to include adult users’ names, photos and comments in ads shown across the Web, based on ratings, reviews and posts they have made on Google Plus and other Google services like YouTube. Google on Friday announced that it would soon be able to show users’ names, photos, ratings and comments in ads across the Web, endorsing marketers’ products. Facebook already runs similar endorsement ads. But on Thursday it, too, took a step to show personal information more broadly by changing its search settings to make it harder for users to hide from other people trying to find them on the social network.
When the new ad policy goes live Nov. 11, Google will be able to show what the company calls shared endorsements on Google sites and across the Web, on the more than two million sites in Google’s display advertising network, which are viewed by an estimated one billion people. Both companies characterized these changes as minor updates. They are, though, the latest example of the continual push by Web companies to collate the reams of personal information shared online in the chase for profits. As Twitter prepares to go public and faces pressures to become profitable, it too will increasingly need to figure out how to make money from the information it collects.
If a user follows a bakery on Google Plus or gives an album four stars on the Google Play music service, for instance, that person’s name, photo and endorsement could show up in ads for that bakery or album. Google and Facebook say that with the most recent changes, they are trying to offer users more comprehensive and personalized services. The problem, privacy advocates say, is when Web companies use or display the personal information of users in ways the authors did not expect when they originally posted it.
Google said it would give users the chance to opt out of being included in the new endorsements, and people under the age of 18 will automatically be excluded. “People expect when they give information, it’s for a single use, the obvious one,” said Dr. Deborah C. Peel, a psychoanalyst and founder of Patient Privacy Rights, an advocacy group. “That’s why the widening of something you place online makes people unhappy. It feels to them like a breach, a boundary violation.”
Such product endorsements, especially coming from friends and acquaintances, are a powerful lure to brands, replicating word-of-mouth marketing on a broad scale. “We set our own boundaries,” she added. “We don’t want them set by the government or Google or Facebook."
But as Facebook has learned, many users have strong and skeptical feelings about their endorsements being used in ads without their explicit permission. Dr. Peel said the rise of new services like Snapchat, which features person-to-person messages that disappear after they are opened, showed how much people wanted more control over how their information was shared.
“The trick to any advertising like this is to avoid coming across as creepy to your user base and have them say, ‘I didn’t want anyone else to know that,' ” said Zachary Reiss-Davis, a Forrester analyst, speaking generally about social ads. Still, the biggest Internet companies are pushing in the other direction, toward an expectation that more information is shown publicly. Google’s announcement came in an update to its terms of service that allows the company to include in ads adult users’ profile information and preferences, ratings and posts they have made on Google Plus and other Google services like search and YouTube.
In a notice to users posted on its site on Friday, Google said, “Feedback from people you know can save you time and improve results for you and your friends across all Google services.” When the new ad policy goes live on Nov. 11, Google will be able to show what the company calls shared endorsements on Google sites and across the Web, on the more than two million sites in Google’s display advertising network, which are viewed by an estimated one billion people. If a user follows a bakery on Google Plus or gives an album four stars on the Google Play music service, for instance, that person’s name, photo and endorsement could show up in ads for that bakery or album.
Facebook, the world’s largest social network with 1.2 billion users worldwide, has been aggressively marketing such social endorsements. For example, if you post that you love McDonald’s new Mighty Wings on the chain’s Facebook page, McDonald’s could pay Facebook to broadcast your kind words to all your friends, effectively using you as a product endorser. Such product endorsements, especially from friends and acquaintances, are a powerful lure to brands, replicating word-of-mouth marketing on a broad scale. Social advertising — which includes a wide range of ads, including endorsements — is a $9.5 billion business, according to eMarketer, accounting for 8 percent of digital ad spending.
The company declined to specify exactly how it planned to use endorsements in advertising, what the ads would look like or how brands choose whether to include shared endorsements. Many users, though, have strong and skeptical feelings about their endorsements being used in ads without their explicit permission. Facebook learned this the hard way when it was sued in a class action by users who claimed the company had not adequately notified them about how it was using endorsements.
Facebook does not allow its users to opt out of such ads, which it calls sponsored stories, although users can limit how their actions on the social network are used in some other types of advertising. Google may find, too, that by simply following a company or commenting on a post, users might not have meant their actions as endorsements.
Google Plus users, on the other hand, will be able to opt out of inclusion in ads on the social network’s settings page. “The trick to any advertising like this is to avoid coming across as creepy to your user base and have them say, ‘I didn’t want anyone else to know that,’ ” said Zachary Reiss-Davis, an analyst at Forrester Research.
If a Google Plus user has shared comments with a limited set of people, only people in that circle will see the personalized ads. Ratings and reviews on services like Google Plus Local are automatically public and can be used in ads, unless a user opts out of shared endorsements. Google said it would give users the chance to opt out of being included in the new endorsements, and people under the age of 18 will automatically be excluded. If a Google Plus user has shared comments with a limited set of people, only people in that circle will see the personalized ads. Ratings and reviews on services like Google Plus Local are automatically public and can be used in ads, unless a user opts out of shared endorsements.
Google had previously shown so-called Plus 1s, votes of approval similar to Facebook likes, in ads across Google sites and its ad network. Google plans to expand that to include “follows,” comments, ratings, reviews and other interactions. Those who have already elected to opt out of using Plus 1s in ads will automatically be opted out of the expansion. Google declined to specify exactly how it planned to use endorsements in ads. Currently, Google does not have an ad option incorporating more social data ready to be used by advertisers. Instead, the company said it wanted the ability to offer such ads in the future and was notifying users in advance.
Though 190 million users post on Google Plus and 390 million use the social network indirectly by sharing on other Google sites like YouTube, Google’s variety of services gives it a potentially wider reach. Addressing potential privacy concerns in a notice to users posted on its site on Friday, Google said, “When it comes to shared endorsements in ads, you can control the use of your Profile name and photo.”
A user’s Google searches or Gmail correspondence, because they are not considered social interactions, would not be used to generate endorsement ads, although the company uses search history and the content of e-mail to display other ads to users. Though Google Plus has significantly fewer users than Facebook — 190 million users post on Google Plus and 390 million use it indirectly by sharing on other Google sites, compared with 1.2 billion users on Facebook — Google’s variety of services and broad ad network gives it a potentially wider reach.
Currently, Google does not have an ad option incorporating more social data that ready to be used by advertisers, the company said. Instead, the company wants the ability to offer such ads in the future and is notifying users in advance. Facebook has been aggressively marketing social endorsements, which it calls sponsored stories. For example, if you post that you love McDonald’s new Mighty Wings on the chain’s Facebook page, McDonald’s could pay Facebook to broadcast your kind words to all your friends.
Facebook does not allow its users to opt out of such ads, although users can limit how their actions on the social network are used in some other types of ads.
Twitter also enables advertisers to show public tweets in their ads, but requires advertisers to get the permission of the original author of a message before using it in an ad.
Although advertising irks some users — even while it helps support free services — social ads have proved particularly contentious.Although advertising irks some users — even while it helps support free services — social ads have proved particularly contentious.
Facebook recently settled a class-action lawsuit that claimed it had not adequately notified users about how it was using endorsements. In late August, it tried to impose a new privacy policy that would have given the company clearer rights to run social ads without a user’s explicit permission. After privacy groups complained, the Federal Trade Commission began an inquiry into the changes, prompting Facebook to suspend the process. Facebook recently settled the class-action lawsuit on its sponsored ads. In late August, it tried to impose a new privacy policy that would have given the company clearer rights to run social ads without a user’s explicit permission. After privacy groups complained, the Federal Trade Commission began an inquiry into the changes, prompting Facebook to suspend the process.
Google, which is under the supervision of the F.T.C. for a previous privacy violation and has agreed to privacy audits and fines for privacy misrepresentations, is taking pains to show that it has considered the privacy implications of the new ads. The change Facebook made Thursday was the equivalent of forbidding users from having an unlisted number in the phone book. But the company said that since Facebook users could be found in other ways, for example through posts by other members, it was discontinuing the option to be hidden. Facebook said the best way for users to protect their privacy was to adjust the settings for their profile and each individual post they make.
It will notify users of the change with banners on Google’s home page, in search results, in Google Plus notifications and elsewhere. And posts by users who have registered as being under age 18 will not appear in ads, though their posts can still appear in search results or other places that are not commercial in nature. Google, which is under the supervision of the F.T.C. for a previous social networking privacy violation and faces privacy audits and fines for privacy misrepresentations, is taking pains to show that it has considered the privacy implications of the new ads. For instance, it will notify users of the change with banners on Google’s home page, in search results, in Google Plus notifications and elsewhere.
Shared endorsements are the latest example of the continual push by Google and other Web companies to collate in one place the reams of personal information people share online and use it to personalize people’s online experiences. In Europe, where privacy is considered a personal right and lawmakers have been debating what data people can reasonably expect companies to use, early reaction was skeptical. Jan Philipp Albrecht, a German member of the European Parliament who is the main sponsor of legislation overhauling the bloc’s privacy standards, said lawmakers would consider Google’s change in the legislation.
Privacy advocates say companies do not generally get meaningful consent from their users before using such information. “We need to go back to the basic rules for fair dealing and transparent decision making, rather than tricking the citizen,” he said.
“Users reasonably expect that their comments should be used as they intended,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which has tangled with numerous Internet companies, most recently Facebook, over the use of personal information in ads. “People don’t typically race around handing their friends leaflets and advertisements.”
In Europe, where privacy is considered a personal right, early reaction was skeptical.
“What Google intends to do is get everyone involved in their advertising model without necessarily involving citizens in a decision about whether to participate in that model,” said Jan Philipp Albrecht, a German member of the European Parliament who is the main sponsor of legislation overhauling and updating the bloc's privacy standards, in a telephone interview on Friday.
Google’s plan for social advertising is “something we will have to react to in our legislation,” said Mr. Albrecht, who said he would like European Union governments and legislators to reach a final agreement on the complex law by April next year.

James Kanter contributed reporting from Brussels.

James Kanter contributed reporting from Brussels.