Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches 
John Murrell of BaysAreaNewsGroup.com reports MoveOndotOrg "has mounted a protest against Facebook’s "Beacon" feature, which lets participating merchants 
automatically tell a member’s friends what he or she has bought, rented or auctioned. MoveOn and its allies object to the fact that Beacon is turned on unless the member takes the trouble to opt out. Not only is Beacon an unwelcome intrusion into members’ privacy, the group says, it’s also ruining holiday surprises left and right. Wrote one fellow who signed MoveOn’s petition, "I saw my gf [girlfriend] bought an item I had been saying I wanted … so now part of my Christmas gift has been ruined. Facebook is ruining Christmas!"
Facebook representatives say Beacon doesn’t really make your purchases public. "Information is shared with a small selection of a user’s trusted network of friends, not publicly on the Web or with all Facebook users," said a company statement. "Users also are given multiple ways to choose not to share information from a participating site, both on that site and on Facebook." But as this demo from MoveOn shows, the opt-out options are not exactly prominent, and can easily be missed even by savvy users like Forrester’s Charlene Li. "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," said MoveOn spokesman Adam Green. "Tell that to the person whose whole Christmas shopping list is revealed or to the employee whose employer sees every book and movie they order online." "
cnet’s take on Beacon (chides Facebook) is here: ZDnet (negative article) is here: and Globe&Mail (not all that supportive) is here:
John’s sentiments have been echoed across the blogsphere. Since readers of this blog tend to be Facebook-centric, what are your thoughts about Beacon? Good? Bad? Evil? Hank
I don’t do many facebook applications, but this one definately sounds like one I would try to opt out of. It seems that it is very hard to set the privacy settings b/c I know most apps do not have privacy settings so it might be confusing or easily forgotten. It does stink that people are seeing what their girlfriends and boyfriends or friends are buying for them. I dont know if the lawsuit is legit, but if there are enough people angry about it facebook should just cancel the application and go on doing something else.
PS Happy Black Friday Hank!
Facebook is getting ridiculous. Out of all of my friends on facebook, I couldn’t name one person who would actually want to see what I have been buying online. If they really do care what I have been buying online then they should ask me. Facebook is turning into a personal private investigator it seems like, coming out with all of these new applications that can help you track all of your friends down and find out everything about them without even talking to them. Only one thing comes to mind when I think of all of these new features that facebook is coming out with, STALKER. What kind of people are working for facebook these days and coming up with all of these new applications? Is facebook hiring stalkers? Jealous exes? Sneaky girlfriends? This whole new wave of applications kind of scares me if you cant tell by my response.
Personally, I would rather people not be told every time I write on someone’s wall or earn a few more points in a trivia game. They don’t really care and it’ll just show them how much time I actually spend on Facebook. I think that an easy solution would be to just make the default set to NOT sharing the information that way people don’t have to worry about something showing up without their knowledge. Maybe even a little note saying “Your purchases will show up in your mini feed and news feed. To change this, please go to the privacy settings for this application.” Something to let the user know what’s going on so that a surprise doesn’t accidentally become, well, not a surprise.
I’m not sure what this app. is supposed to accomplish. It is pretty funny that facebook is “killing” the Christmas surprise. The facebook was initially about sharing information, I think that they have taken the sharing too far and they are really starting to push people boundaries.
Well, I was against Facebook from the beginning, the only reason why I used it was to get to know people before I came to Purdue, but right now everyone’s using it and so I’m pretty much compelled to use it as well since some of my friends apparently can’t email or text me, nope,they have to use Facebook. I never liked it, don’t get me wrong, sharing pictures and all is fun, but I knew it wasn’t going to stay there, I already see some of my friends posting everything about themselves on the site and I just think that’s a bit silly since well yeah you never know what might happen.
Some facebook applications are getting a bit ridiculous. Beacon would definatly be something that i would not to add. It’s digging into peoples privacy when you show what people have bought.Although it may be going a tad too far to say that “facebook is ruining Christmas.”
Well, I understand where facebook is coming from. If these are kids then mabey their purchases should be monitored. However, I really don’t think that this is a big deal either way. My recommendation to facebook would be to rid of this becuase it is unnessesary and it angers people.
Read the fine print. I’m sorry, but this article sounds like a bunch of unneccessary complaining to me. It’s all about making money, Facebook is going to do what it has to in order to maximize it’s profits. Members of Facebook should be understanding and knowledgable of this fact. It is not Facebook’s job to worry about what your buying as long as their paycheck is coming in regularly. People need to start taking some responsibility and if you don’t want everyone to know what you are buying, maybe you should think twice before you buy it? Just a thought.
I don’t get into the apps unless they’re sports apps really, but Facebook definitely has a weak argument on this. Why no opt out options?? Yes, people should think before they buy, but I think everything on facebook should have clear options for others to not be able to see all that you’re doing.
I hate the obnoxious fury that is the newsfeed. needless to say..this application is beyond irritating.
what kind of quality control are the creators employing? i would think..that they would have some sort of regulatory group..blocking those applications which are beyond rediculous. if not..wouldnt it just become a free-for-all of uselessness.