Facebook and Twitter Launch Ad Transparency Features

Facebook and Twitter have both released new features that allow users to see which accounts are promoting which advertisements.

On Facebook, a new area of ‘Pages’ will be introduced that allows users to see all of the promotions a given page is running.

“I think advertisers for most part stand behind the ads they’re running,” COO Sheryl Sandberg said to TechCrunch.

On how the feature may affect competition, she added: “You actually can see a lot of your competitors’ ads [already], you just have to catch them.”

Twitter, meanwhile, is releasing its ‘Ads Transparency Center’.

The tool allows users to search by Twitter handle and see any promotions that an account has run in the past seven days.

“We are doing our due diligence to get this right and will have more updates to come,” said Twitter’s Bruce Falck.

“We stay committed to iterating and improving our work in this space, and doing what’s right for our community.”

The news comes shortly after the New York Times ran a piece on some of the more concerning patents Facebook has filed for regarding advertising and privacy.

These include using the camera to detect facial expressions and analyse reactions to content, a method for predicting death, and using the microphone to identify TV viewing habits.

Read more here.