As the controversy over new online marketing plans by social networks continues, there is evidence of growing user backlash. Both Facebook and MySpace have recently announced the launch of new interactive marketing schemes on their platforms, even after the Federal Trade Commission and consumer groups had expressed concerns about the privacy threats posed by behavioral profiling on social network sites.

Just this week, the political group, MoveOn.org, started an online protest against Facebook’s “social ads”scheme, a new form of viral marketing that involuntarily passes information about a user’s purchases to that user’s friends. As people realize how much of their private consumer behavior is being turned into involuntary advertising to friends and acquaintances, many of them have become alarmed and upset. The protest has already generated more than 2,500 complaints to the company.

Facebook’s new plans are only a tiny piece of a much larger set of trends that should concern consumers. Digital marketing is entering a new phase where massive data collection and highly-detailed profiling will become routine, and companies will be able to “hypertarget” individuals with personalized advertising messages. These developments could create a corporate surveillance system in the digital media and unleash a flood of invasive and pervasive commercials. Overcommercialization of social networking sites also threatens their integrity as authentic, user-based communities, and arenas for social and political communication. (See Center for Digital Demcracy letter to FTC.)

I hope more consumers will join the effort to curtail some of these egregious practices.