A new service from Facebook will leverage the company’s massive database of personal information to serve targeted ads on websites other than its own.
The program, called Atlas, is Facebook’s answer to AdSense, a service from Google that lets advertisers place ads on various websites based on a user’s web activity. Facebook acquired Atlas from Microsoft a year ago and according to project head Erik Johnson has “rebuilt Atlas from the ground up.” The product serves as a complement to Facebook’s Audience Network released in April which places ads in mobile applications.
In a statement announcing the launch of Atlas, Johnson revealed that the company has already agreed to a partnership with Omnicom Media Group whose clients include Pepsi as and CPU maker Intel. Facebook also announced that it would integrate other properties, including Instagram, allowing advertisers to compare marketing analytics across multiple platforms.
As exciting as Atlas is for advertisers, the news is much less pleasing to Facebook users concerned with how their personal information is being used. Facebook has long been criticized for its data collection practices, though the outrage has yet to make a meaningful dent in Facebook’s base of over 757 million daily users.
