I am having trouble even beginning to explain how mad I am right now, but I'm going to try.
To me Facebook is nothing I take too seriously. I know that there are complaints about privacy settings and everything, but in my world-view if you want something to remain private then don't put it on the internet ANYWHERE, let alone a social media site.
But as some of you are aware, Facebook has started up a policy of putting sponsored ads into newsfeeds, basically saying that some person on your friends list likes company "X" and won't you check it out? When they started this policy I laughed it off and put up a quick post saying that you see me "liking" Walmart it's a lie.
But I made a mistake in just how terrible this is, and I'll explain below the orange cufflink stamp.
My sister died two months ago. She used to run a boutique in her neighborhood and she used her Facebook page to promote it to her friends. She had lots and lots of friends - most of her Facebook Friends were also friends in real life. She was loved (far more than I am) and her sudden death was a shock to us all.
Almost immediately, her Facebook page became a shrine to her memory. It was used to arrange fund-raisers for her children and to talk about the store she had run. The outpouring of love and sympathy was amazing. Two months later her page has become a shrine and a memorial, with people posting pictures and memories of her. For this, Facebook was wonderful.
And then today, in my own newsfeed (and not on her page) I was informed that she had liked a restaurant/bar in New Jersey. This was a sponsored ad. It was an ad for ladies night at this bar.
My sister lived in Southern California. She was born there. She grew up there. She married there. She passed on there. As far as I know, she never traveled east of Nevada in her entire life. You will not find her name on the "Likes" for this bar.
So it appears that Facebook picked a random name out of my friends list and put up an advertisement using her name and likeness. A restaurant/bar in New Jersey paid them money to do this, without the consent of anyone even remotely related to my sister, and they did so implying that she had.
This is about as wrong a thing as I can think of to do in her memory. I'm no expert on what is legal and what isn't in this sort of thing but I'd bet that Facebook has their asses covered. It don't make it right.
The family doesn't want to take her page down. As I said, the memorial is a good thing. But this stinks to high heaven and I have no idea how to make it right. I'm leaving names out of this to protect privacy of everyone involved - I'd like to imagine that even the bar isn't going to like that this has happened. I've contacted them but haven't heard back as of this posting.
This ad appeared in my Facebook newsfeed, telling me my dead sister likes them and has consented to be used in their advertising.
So I'm just spreading the word, and I'd like it to spread far. A lot of people have made Facebook an integral part of their lives and Facebook is taking advantage of that in a way that reeks of sewage.