Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Facebook Will Shut Down Beacon To Settle Lawsuit

Posted by Soulskill on from the strategic-retreats dept.

alphadogg writes "Facebook has agreed to shut down its much-maligned Beacon advertising system in order to settle a class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit, filed in August of last year, alleged that Facebook and its Beacon affiliates like Blockbuster and Overstock.com violated a series of laws, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Video Privacy Protection Act, the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act and the California Computer Crime Law. The proposed settlement, announced late on Friday, calls not only for Facebook to discontinue Beacon, but also back the creation of an independent foundation devoted to promoting online privacy, safety and security. The money for the foundation will come from a US$9.5 million settlement fund."

3 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmm if only something like that existed already by ifwm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The proposed settlement, announced late on Friday, calls not only for Facebook to discontinue Beacon, but also back the creation of an independent foundation devoted to promoting online privacy, safety and security.

    That's great, if only something like that existed already, they could avoid the cost of starting a whole new organization.

    http://www.eff.org/

  2. Re:What a great fiction! by CRCulver · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'd like to see the article providing proof of that level of monitoring by the NSA (or any other government agency for that matter).

    Not only is there an article, there was a major governmental investigation. The European Parliament's ECHELON report provoked an enormous scandal in nerd circles when it appear. Bamford's Body of Secrets provided fuller details, many based on inside contacts.

    Sadly, things like PGP and interest in ECHELON reports seem to have become less popular among geeks. I wonder why. Sure, one might trust PGP less when there are ways to get around it or compel you personally to give up the key, but it's odd that people suddenly have zero passion for the technology.

  3. Re:What a great fiction! by schmidt349 · · Score: 5, Informative
    NSA's Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data (WSJ)

    Report: Obama to use NSA to monitor Net (USA Today)

    NSA Must Examine All Internet Traffic to Prevent Cyber Nine-Eleven, Top Spy Says (Wired)

    In short, the NSA has been reading everything sent in plaintext since Bush II, and yet the EFF spends untold millions on lawsuits to make sure that my friends on Facebook don't know what kind of pizza I order from Domino's. What a great allocation of scarce pro-privacy resources.

    I know exactly why this is: if you sue Facebook or Twitter or whatever, you get your name in the papers. If you go after the NSA you get called "soft on terror" and your campaign bid for governor of East Nowhere is sunk.