Facebook to Sell User Data

Facebook, the social networking giant boasting, has a new plan for generating revenue: selling user data from its 150 million members to market research firms. “The company, which has struggled to make money from advertising, has been demonstrating the benefits of its new instant polling tool to some of the most influential business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos,” The Telegraph reports. The power of Facebook users to influence corporate decisions has already had been demonstrated—chocolate maker Cadbury, for example, saved its popular Wispa chocolate bar from extinction following after a Facebook group devoted to the sweet treat grew to 40,000 members—but the company’s attempts at systematic market research have failed repeatedly, with users protesting the privacy invasion. Guess how they’ll greet this latest bit of news?