By Stevie Smith Dec 3, 2007, 12:16 GMT
Facebook’s privacy values have been called into question recently following user complaints related to the introduction of a controversial new advertising application called Beacon.
Facebook pulls back on its Beacon marketing application following user complaints. Credit: Facebook.
Beacon, which tracks the online buying habits of Facebook users and spreads trend information amongst their approved friends, has come under fire regarding the lack of customary ‘opt in’ usage choice and subsequent control offered to users regarding its removal, integration, and reach.
Online retailers utilise Beacon’s marketing advantages by embedding the application’s code into their sites, which in turn monitors any Facebook users that purchase goods through their participating virtual stores. This information is then fed back to user ‘news feeds’ on Facebook, which can be freely viewed by anyone on the customer’s friends listing.
For their part in channelling the sales information back to Facebook, the participating retailers receive free advertising.
Fronted by U.S. civil rights group MoveOn, more than 55,000 people have signed an online petition demanding that Facebook remove Beacon, labelling it as an invasion of privacy. The mass negative attention has subsequently led to the social networking giant scaling back its new contentious marketing application.
Personal concerns were raised when many Facebook users began seeing specific item details related to Christmas purchases appearing on their news feeds, all of which could be openly viewed by friends and family – the likely recipients of said seasonal gifts.
And it’s not just Facebook backing away from Beacon, with participating retailer Overstock.com promptly dumping the application after it dispatched an alert to one customer’s wife after he had purchased a 14k white gold 1/5 ct diamond eternity ring for her.
"We recognise that users need to clearly understand Beacon before they have a story published," commented Facebook in a related Independent report. "We will continue to refine this approach to give users choice."
And that choice will include more user control for those under the gaze of Beacon, while also implementing a per-story approval process whereby no single purchase notification will be publicly posted to the news feed without the user’s consent, which has been called "a step in the right direction," by MoveOn.
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