Facebook Profiles (And Their Friends) Auctioned on eBay
It's unclear whether or not this is a joke but someone has placed ten Facebook profiles for sale on eBaby. The profiles, created by the same person but reflective of ten different types of people, are said to each have a minimum of 200 friends. Each profile was then actively integrated into the Facebook community through forums, events, networks, groups and all the other spider legs Facebook has to offer.
The seller is offering control of these profiles to marketers, writing, "Under the right conditions and for a fair price you will receive full control of these personas, as well as associated emails."
To say the least, this brings up a huge list of issues not the least of which are privacy and outright fraud as none of these profiles are reflective of an actual person. Would any marketer dare tread these waters? No doubt some will.
It's all yet another reminder what we say online, stays online...forever...and ever...and can never be taken back. Be careful what you do and say because no matter how many laws are made, it's simply not possible to guarantee any sort of privacy online.
This eBay auction, if real, is pretty sleazy. Here's hoping it's just a lame stunt by some loser agency.
Comments
Andddd it's down already. Against facebook policy? I remember aim names, 3 character or witty names, were sold a few years back. Similar, but much more reach with the facebook auction. Lame or not, it sounds like a college kid needing money and having extra time.
Did anybody screenshoot what was up on Ebay? It'd b interesting to check out these fake personas -- probably (hopefully) took someone a lot of time and consideration to create them.
This story is more interesting from a Conversational Marketing perspective rather than a Chicken Little online privacy angle.
I didn't screenshot (should have) but there was nothing more than a list. Sort of like "Young, twenty-something female" and other descriptors like that for each profile.
Makes you wonder how many fake active profiles are out there.
The more I think about this, the funnier it is.
Here's my official new term for this: SMOLE
"I found out my new friend is SMOLE"
"20% of my Contacts are SMOLEs"
Akismet: "Blocked - 23,874 SMOLE Registrants"