Facebook to sell user data for research

The Daily Telegraph reports that social network will let companies poll specific groups of its members to test the appeal of new products.
 
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Randi Zuckerberg, Facebook’s global markets director, said: “I had tons of people saying ‘this could be so incredible for our business. It takes a very long time to do a focus group, and businesses often don’t have the luxury of time. I think they liked the instant responses.”

The move, planned to start later this year, will see the appearance of corporate polls targeted at certain  parts of the Facebook audience because of the information they have  posted on their pages.

While Facebook has been seeking new ways to monetise its social network, now twice as big as its nearest competitor MySpace, this new initiative could spark privacy concerns over the use of personal data.

Commenting on the move, Pontus Kristiansson, CEO and co-founder of ecommerce specialist Avail Intelligence, said: “On the one hand, behaviourally targeted marketing may give rise to an uncomfortable ‘big brother is watching’ feeling, especially if personal integrity issues are not taken seriously. But, is it not the case that tailored information is always more relevant and actually less intrusive than an impersonal approach?
 
“Marketing can be tailored using just an anonymous site visitor ID,avoiding the use of personally identifiable information to target consumers and addressing privacy concerns. Using collective information generated by the people that visit a site, as opposed to rules set up by the marketer, offers an even less intrusive approach to advertising. Targeting marketing in this way will contribute to internet-age trend of the consumer being in control.
  
Last year, Facebook launched an ‘Engagement Ads’ tool, which let advertisers publish a poll on people's home pages. The polls, which can include actions such as watching and rating a movie trailer.