David

"Here was my comment on the blog itself: I got a similar ad the other day that used my age. It begins, "are you 32 and male?" and continues to say that if so, I am just right for their products. We'll my immediate thought was "of course I'm 32 and male and you KNOW that, Facebook, because you require my birthday as 'a safety precaution'!" This is the problem with online advertising - I cannot choose what information I trade for things I value. I gave this particular information so that children would not use Facebook without supervision - i.e. as a safety precaution. I give my education information so I can network, not so I can get ads for "Nerdwestern" t-shirts. This, to me, is a gross and growing problem of misusing user profile or other user information to target them with ads. I realize - and agree - that publishers need to monetize their sites, but I think this takes it too far. The sad part is that it isn't just the consumers who are getting the bad end of the deal. Marketers,..." - David