Social networking giant Facebook will now begin to offer its 150 million customer base to companies, marketing the offering as a polling tool. But the appearance of company polls directed to certain users based on information in their profiles is likely to enrage some users, concerned over privacy issues.
Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg displayed the concept at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week. He showed the audience how he could poll Palestinian and Israeli users about peace issues, and receive instant results. A similar test with Americans asking about President Barack Obama’s stimulus package was also shown.
Zuckerberg says the polls will be able to provide businesses with information from a wide range of users in an extremely short amount of time. The polls would work similarly to current Facebook advertising, which is suited to the information displayed in a user’s profile.
The first polls are expected to appear later this year.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
