Facebook Retreats on Online Tracking

Nrbelex writes "Facebook is reining in some aspects of a controversial new advertising program, after users became extremely upset and threatened various 'protests' over possible privacy infringement issues. 'Late yesterday the company made an important change, saying that it would not send messages about users' Internet activities without getting explicit approval each time ... Facebook executives say the people who are complaining are a marginal minority. With time, Facebook says, users will accept Beacon, which Facebook views as an extension of the type of book and movie recommendations that members routinely volunteer on their profile pages.'"

Comments

Re:Good!

[Y-Crate]

But too late for me...I already deleted my Facebook profile when they launched this abominable feature. You merely deactivated it. It's still there, all the data has been retained. You could go back and reactivate it tomorrow and find yourself staring at the same profile you had before you "deleted" it.

One of the issues

[wiredog]

As described in The Washington Post:

Sean Lane's purchase was supposed to be a surprise for his wife. Then it appeared as a news headline -- "Sean Lane bought 14k White Gold 1/5 ct Diamond Eternity Flower Ring from overstock.com" -- last week on the social networking Web site Facebook.

Without Lane's knowledge, the headline was visible to everyone in his online network, including 500 classmates from Columbia University and 220 other friends, co-workers and acquaintances.

And his wife.

Further down, the reason Facebook changed the policy:

Lane complained to Overstock. Company spokesman Judd Bagley said this week that on Nov. 21, Overstock abandoned its Beacon feature until Facebook changes its practice so that users must volunteer if they want to participate.

Hard to be an ad-supported site if the advertisers won't advertise...

Re:Result don't buy stuff advertised on facebook

[Bieeanda]

No, that's the problem. The Beacon system lets retailers interact with your Facebook cookies. They get your Facebook ID, insert what you've bought into a new cookie, and Beacon happily makes your purchase into an ad. Worse, the opt-out functionality is on a case-by-case basis, and you have to opt out after the fact because there's no way to turn it off before-hand (beyond proxying Beacon out).

This isn't a matter of simply not clicking on banner ads or affiliate links. This is collaboration to track your on-line movements and make banner ads out of them.

how to stop beacon

[contrapunctus]

I found this site: http://www.bspcn.com/2007/11/09/block-facebook-beacon/ with instructions on how to block beacon with firefox. I'm not sure how effective it is.

Re:Good!

[ahsile]

You can request that facebook delete your information, and they will do so. I emailed them after deactivating my account and told them I was dissatisfied with that option. They kindly replied within an hour, and after confirming my identity it was done.

So are they are going to track all my purchases?

[themagic8ball]

Does this mean I have to stop buying porn over the internet?

Re:Good!

[goldaryn]

From the T&Cs: "By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content." http://www.facebook.com/terms.php

According to their terms and conditions

[Se7enLC]

When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site.

By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.

You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.

Forget when they decide to post about your activities online - their terms and conditions clearly state that if they want to, they can take that photo that you posted of you under a beer funnel at a frat party and sell it to anybody they want. You might end up in a TV commercial and receive no notice, compensation, or even acknowledgment. If you write something interesting in a note, they can publish it and collect profits from it. Scary.