Facebook Tempers Beacon Ad Features, Users Respond

[OhioChick]

Actions taken on external Web sites will continue to appear at the top of a Facebook user's News Feed, but only if they opt-in.

By K.C. Jones
InformationWeek
November 30, 2007 05:28 PM


Facebook made changes to its ad system this week after users and political groups complained it posted "news" about online purchases users made after leaving the site.
Now stories will not be published in users' Mini-Feeds and their friends' News Feeds unless users proactively consent, Facebook announced Friday.

In early November, Facebook launched Beacon as a new way to socially distribute information, saying it was a "core element" its online advertisement system for connecting businesses with users and targeting advertising to the audiences they want.

Charlene Li, a Forrester Research analyst, said she was surprised to find that her purchase of a table on Overstock.com was added to her News Feed, a Facebook feature that broadcasts people's activities to their friends on the site. She said she did not see an opt-out box.

She, and others, who numbered as many as 50,000 in one online opposition group, complained that the "Big Brother" feature had crossed the line and invaded users' privacy.

By Friday, Facebook published a statement outlining changes.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204400464

[aquart]

1. And, perhaps, fired the idiot who did it?

[silverweb]

2. Not good enough.

They "tweaked" the setup a bit, but continue to collect information far more pervasively than was realized before.

Read _this_, especially the part about "tracking users who opt out or are not logged in." Note at the end of the article that Facebook execs flat out LIED about their spying/broadcasting practices.

Be aware that nothing is really private, and your internet activities are being tracked and monitored by someone somewhere. At least with a little caution maybe you can keep your on-line activities from being broadcast by the likes of Beacon and Facebook to your on-line contacts.

Meanwhile, like Ashcroft said a while back, "watch what you say, watch what you do" -- especially now that we have the full-blown fascist directive from DHS mandating people like firefighters to _report_ on those who are "hostile, uncooperative, or expressing hate or discontent with the United States."

Almost everybody's going to be on one of their fucking lists pretty soon, but there's no reason to rush it or make yourself stand out.

Prudence would dictate: (1) clearing all cookies frequently; (2) never ever using the "remember me" feature for Facebook (or most other sites); (3) running a program like SpyBot or AdAware regularly; and (4) signing the MoveOn _petition_ against these offensive and invasive practices.