Facebook’s controversial “Sponsored Stories” ads will be no more on April 9th, 2014. The social network first announced its intentions to discontinue the ads last fall after a lawsuit was brought against the company for using user likenesses without compensating them.
Sponsored Stories featured users in an ad if he or she interacted with a company’s fan page or checked in at certain venues. The ads displayed the profile picture and name of the user next to the ad.
While Sponsored Stories are disappearing, that doesn’t mean your likeness won’t be used in advertising at all. “Social context — stories about social actions your friends have taken, such as liking a page or checking in to a restaurant — is now eligible to appear next to all ads shown to friends on Facebook,” writes Facebook in a blog post. This means if you opt-in to pairing your social actions with Facebook ads, your likeness will still be shown in ads to people in your friends list.
If you’d like to remove yourself from all Facebook Ads, navigate to your Settings and click on the “Ads” section or click this link. There you will find a section labeled “Ads and Friends” to opt out.
Source: Facebook
