Facebook has revealed that Sponsored Stories will be removed as one of its advertising option on the Facebook site. Still, advertisers will still be able to target ads based on your friendship activity, making it more suitable with the ‘socially contextual’ related ads. Facebook described the new ads as follows:
Marketers will no longer be able to purchase sponsored stories separately; instead, 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.
Of course users can control what is shared on Facebook by your Activity Log, and here you can also decide should your personal information be used in Facebook ads. The issue for most users is the don’t know how, or can’t be bothered to update these settings.