the ads have it

Targeted advertising is booming on the internet. From Gmail's invasive headliner blurbs highlighting anything and everything mentioned in emails, to customized ads on your browser copying everything shoppers search for, it is clear that the web experience is more individualized than ever.

When I sign in to Facebook, I'm always interested to see what the ads will be. Recently, the ad gods have pegged me for an animal lover (true), sorority girl (okay, fair enough), USC student (duh), homeowner (nope), chef (I wish) and someone in need of a nose job (ouch!).

So they may have not perfected the science quite yet, but the ads definitely tap in to profile information, key words used in conversations, and searches elsewhere online while logged in. Creepy, isn't it? When I asked my roommate how she felt about the effectiveness of the targeted Facebook ads, she scowled and said, "It's stupid. I'm not on Facebook for that." But I know of at least one time I clicked an animal-related ad, so they must be doing something right.

The business ethics issue here brings up the same concerns that I have with all of these social networking sites. Where is the line drawn between what belongs to the user, and what belongs to the owner of the site?

On Gmail, for example, they can literally filter through the content in my emails and display ads that relate. Did I mention these include personal, business and other emails? I know Gmail owns the server, but that's just wrong.

However, the worst invasion of privacy and user rights I've ever seen was on a Facebook ad. Apparently, if you pay enough money, you can turn literally anything into an ad on that site, and it can be shown to a certain audience (like those in the USC network).

In this case, I was scrolling along my page when I saw that one of the ads pictured a male USC student that I know. The ad read:

"Don't let what happened to Steve happen to you, get tested for STDs.. he had to learn the hard way."

Believe me, Steve is not an STD spokesperson. Nor is he a model. One of his friends submitted the picture and bought an ad as a prank.

That's just taking it too far!