[MW Forums]

Slammed by a firestorm of criticism over privacy concerns related to its recently unveiled Beacon advertising system, Facebook announced a new privacy control that will let users turn off Beacon completely. more

[bigpics]

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Slammed by a firestorm of criticism over privacy concerns related to its recently unveiled Beacon advertising system, Facebook announced a new privacy control that will let users turn off Beacon completely. <a href="/news/2007/12/05/facebook/index.php">[more]</a>

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Gee, and here users thought this whole free social network/email/pic sharing/youTube/Flickr business is all done for them, not to find some way to make massive amounts of money off of them.
And they are shocked, shocked.
But Facebook did take mining its users for gold to a new level and expected them to actually embrace it as an added value rather than crass and potentially dangerous exploitation of their "members." And their mea culpa, to be charitable, leaves out only, well, the truth about their underlying motivation.
I can't keep migrating to the next hot thing, so I'm personally menz-a-menz about whether this harms their cachet or not, but the joint's always tried to appear a little too upscale for the likes 'o me in the first place, so if this stumble lands them on their faces, or doesn't.... whatever ...it'll be interesting to see how the issue plays out.

[iron_chef]

John Doe is...
browsing for embarrassing weight loss magazines at the Barnes and Noble.
Jane Doe is...
buying Victoria Secret products on clearance.
Beacon is...
such a stupid idea only a facebook advertiser can dream up.

[elCapiton]

About time. It was stupid you couldn't even turn it off until something tried to post to your facebook page. Now you can turn it off before anything tries it.

[Pennywigeon]

This makes those conspiracy therorists look half way credible.
"Big Brother Is Watching You. His Name is Beacon."
It is one thing to post ads, polls, and even commercials for advertising. It is another when a large corporate entity does something akin to "digital Dumpster Diving" looking for information they use later to better "improve" their advertising.
I hope many people migrate away from Facebook as an example that a majority of people do not wish their privacy to be violated so blatantly.
WHo is to say this technology could not be recoded to mine Credit Card numbers from people who shop online or gather personal information such as SS numbers and what not. This is the same information people collect in order to steal an identity. I would not be surprised if Facebooks next service is a paid service protecting your privacy.
As to turning it off ... It only says it will not SHARE the information. They never claimed it would NOT still mine the information.
[shudder]