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November 30, 2007

Facebook retreats, won't publish users' purchases and activities without their consent

Facebook and advertisers will still collect data on what users are doing and what they buy, but the latest version of the retreat the giant social networking site floated tonight lets the user decide whether to make that information public. If the user does nothing, the information languishes, nagging perhaps, but not publishing with their profile photos alongside advertising related to their activity.

On the Times Bits Blog (The Evolution of Facebook’s Beacon), Louise Story reports,

Thursday night, late edition:

Facebook executives tell reporters that users who ignore the alert boxes will no longer be considered to have said “yes,” even after two days. If users ignore the alert box, Facebook says it will not post the news of their purchases to their friends. This is a big change, if implemented correctly. Users will still be hassled by the alert boxes from Facebook on its partner sites, but ideally they can ignore them now and not worry about their purchases being shared.

Facebook executives say they do not want to add a universal opt-out button because then users would not be able to try out Beacon on different sites to see what it can offer. One Facebook executive predicts that consumers may “fall in love” with Beacon once they understand it. Only time will tell.

You can read Facebook's entire statement in this post at Dean Takahashi's Tech Blog: Facebook caves to pressure.

There is still no way to opt out of the Beacon tracking program. Sam Gustin at Portfolio explains (Fog Over Facebook's Beacon) what's making Facebook wriggle over this one:

Facebook is in a tough position, because it is counting on Beacon to drive revenue growth for the company - which expects to earn only $30 million this year. Microsoft recently paid $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake which valued the company at $15 billion.

Indeed, the reason Beacon has the potential to be so profitable is that it is difficult for Facebook's 50 million users to opt out of it.

In a story for today's New York Times (Facebook Retreats on Online Tracking), Story and Brad Stone note that "Two privacy groups said this week that they were preparing to file privacy complaints about the system with the Federal Trade Commission. Among online merchants, Overstock.com has decided to stop running Facebook’s Beacon program on its site until it becomes an opt-in program."

This would seem to leave Facebook's experiment in monetizing the reader in something of a shambles.

Still later: TechCrunch has a screenshot of the new notification, with its "Remove" link, and finds a way to opt out on a per-advertiser basis (Facebook Beacon 2.0: What You’ll See):

Opt Out Found via the “External Websites” section of the Facebook Privacy page, this allows users to permanently opt in or out of Beacon notifications, or if you’re not sure be notified. The downside is that there is no global option to opt out of every Beacon affiliated program; it has to be set per program. Better this than nothing I suppose.

When I followed the privacy-->External Websites path, I see,

Show your friends what you like and what you're up to outside of Facebook. When you take actions on the sites listed below, you can choose to have those actions sent to your profile.

Please note that these settings only affect notifications on Facebook. You will still be notified on affiliate websites when they send stories to Facebook. You will be able to decline individual stories at that time.

No sites have tried sending stories to your profile

But there are no sites listed below. Apparently, I can't act till one pops up, like Whack-A-Mole.

Sidebar: Who signed up for Beacon? On Nov. 17, Dustin Coates of Austin, Texas, published 41 Sites Using Facebook Beacon--Facebook to Know Your Porn Viewing?.

I wanted to know which sites used Facebook Beacon. I couldn't find the information easily on the Facebook site, so I took to Google. It didn't seem as if anyone had compiled a list, though I did find a Facebook press release mentioning participating websites. Below is the full list and, when available, what information the websites send to Facebook. The one entry I found the most interesting was the one for Redlight. As I mention below, I couldn't find any site that went by that name that wasn't an adult site...

Among the sites he found: CBS Sports, The New York Times, the NBA, Blockbuster, Travelocity, Hotwire... And there may be more than these 41.

Strangest of all on this list: "eBay- -eBay will send your auction listings to Facebook, beginning in 2008." eBay operates with aliases, Facebook with real names, which could be awkward. Best, of all, Facebook could tell your friends that you sold the gift on eBay that Facebook told you one of them bought for you this week.

Related: Privacy Groups Ready FTC Complaint Against Facebook. Wendy Davis at Online Media Daily.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 1:41 AM | Permalink