Facebook's "Beacon" Infuriate Users, MoveOn

"If Facebook's argument is that sharing private information with hundreds or thousands of someone's closest 'friends' is not the same as making that information 'public,' that shows how weak Facebook's argument is," Green said in an e-mail. "Facebook users across the nation are outraged that the books, movies, and gifts they buy privately on other sites are being displayed publicly without permission--and it's time for Facebook to reverse this massive privacy breach."

The backlash comes as online advertisers experiment with "behavioral targeting," or sending people ads based on personal information about them. A common type of behavioral targeting involves tracking the Web sites an Internet user visits in order to send them ads that are relevant to their interests.

Facebook, critics argue, takes its advertising beyond that by collecting specific data about its users' activities on outside sites and broadcasting that data to their friends and acquaintances. Critics of the new feature say the Palo Alto, Calif., company makes it difficult to opt out of it.

Users can't opt out of the program, called "Facebook Beacon," altogether. Instead, they have to opt out on a case-by-case basis when they use one of the outside sites.

MoveOn notes the absurdity of having Beacon be "opt-out" at all (let alone opt-out on a case-by-case basis):

"The opt-out is very well hidden," [MoveOn spokesman Adam Green] said. "It basically pops up for a second and then goes away, and it's on the bottom of your screen when you're purchasing on a totally unrelated Web site, so you aren't even looking for it." He added that there's not a universal opt-out, so members have to repeat the process on each partner site. "Even if you see the opt-out and jump through the hoops of opting out once, that doesn't solve the problem."... "The bottom line," MoveOn spokesman Adam Green said in an interview with CNET News.com, "is that no Facebook user should have their private purchases online posted for the entire world to see without their explicit opted-in permission."

See Also:
MoveOn.org Protesting Facebook By Using Facebook
Zuckerberg: Facebook Users Had Better Like Social Ads, Because They Can't Opt Out
Facebook Social Ads: The Devil is in the Details