Facebook Saves Christmas (By Making Changes to Beacon) - But Privacy Issues Still Loom
Perhaps in response to the campaign by MoveOn, perhaps just because they have always tweaked new features in the weeks following their launch, Facebook announced last night changes to its much-maligned (in the press) Beacon advertising system. According to a statement, participation in Beacon, while still controlled site-to-site, is now explicitly opt-in -- ignoring a Beacon notification will no longer be taken as passive acceptance to publish stories to your news feed. Users will have to explicitly tell the system they are okay with the information being passed to their profile before any info is posted.
MoveOn is calling this a victory, even though the system still operates site-by-site, and Facebook has said there will be no global opt-out, which we pointed out was apparently in an earlier, pre-release version of the system, and which MoveOn later picked up on.
As we suggested last week, and as VentureBeat also intimated, the size of the reaction from Facebook users seemed overblown -- i.e., the tech media and blogosophere echo chamber was more upset by Beacon than the majority of Facebook users. That matters little, though, since better privacy controls for users is a win for them whether they care to have them or not. We can't help but think, however, that MoveOn has actually missed the important issue.
The MoveOn campaign focused exclusively on Beacon's tendency to share purchases with friends (or total strangers in your network via your mini-feed, as MoveOn's Adam Green pointed out to me via email last week). But what we haven't heard from MoveOn is a word about the information Facebook is gathering on your purchases. Whether or not you opt-in to let the stories be published, Facebook still likely knows what you bought and is gathering that information. Which is the greater breech of your privacy?
This is, of course, nothing new. Google, DoubleClick, Microsoft's Atlas, any just about any other ad network on the web uses cookies to watch where you go and build a profile of your behavior. It's all supposed to be anonymous, of course, but privacy advocates have long been unnerved by this practice (the US Senate is looking into DoubleClick now). The difference with Facebook, is that the data they gather on your purchases (and potentially on your web browsing) is linked to a profile of additional information specifically about you. Even if they promise the data is kept anonymous and not sold to third-parties -- and they do -- doesn't that seem just a bit creepier than the potential for your friends to find out which game you bought for your Wii from Overstock?
While users can count it a victory that they have greater control over what information gets published to the news feed about their behavior outside Facebook, that they still have no way to opt-out of the data collection on Facebook partner sites at all is somewhat disconcerting. Data collection on the web by advertisers is something that many of us have grown used to, and some of us have grown jaded and simply accept it as a fact of Internet life. But the real privacy issue here has not been resolved: Facebook still has access to detailed information about your purchasing and browsing habits on partner sites that you can't opt-out of.
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Facebook made decision to change Beacon only because of protest by Moveon, few users and strong users from people in blogosphere. What unnerved people this time that browsing habits could now be attached to personal identifiable information (profile of facebook users). Also, not only facebook but also all of their friends would come to know of their activities, which frankly turned out to be too much for users!! :)
This attempt will silence the critics, but point remains that this is only surface change. Facebook still gets the data from third parties.
There's a very simple reason as to why there was no widespread user revolt (like when the News Feed first appeared, or even when Facebook opened to the public): The Beacon didn't affect very many Facebook users. Only the few poor souls who had their Christmas presents or engagement rings spoiled had reason to be upset.
If Beacon negatively affected 100% of the Facebook population (instead of the less than 1% it actually did), I'm sure we would have seen more complaints from Facebook users.
never thought facebook would come this far but oh boy I was wrong
Car Seat Eddie Bauer is First in Safety
Hey josh, great post!!!!
sounds interesting....
Its a good news for facebook users....
For those of you will be in New York at the end of December, you should check out a show at Beacon Theater, Holiday Wonders. It is a variety-type show focused on traditional Chinese arts and legends with some western performances added in. Some of my friends are performing in it so I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek—it’s really, really beautiful. You can see pictures at www.holidaywonders.net.
What should be comming first, The egg or the chicken? The question has the reputation of being hard.
For me this is what is happening with social network trying to experiment with logical money earning methods.
Until this new networks find their way of using the profiles that they are building with out rejection, will pass some little time :-(
There were two issues with beacon: collection and notification. The notification issue has been fixed, but not the collection issue -- as you've pointed out here and I first pointed out on TC a month ago (see comment #43 at http://tinyurl.com/2l3lag).
Indeed, all media companies have been profiling us for years -- implicitly and without user control or transparency. The HUGE difference here is that this is tied to personally identifiable information (PII), whereas most other user profiling is non-PII. Also, there is perceived control, not actual control over this profile information. Facebook owns it all.
Remember about 8 years ago when DoubleClick came under huge attack for attempting to merge user identity data with distributed surfing behavior? What's different here?
It's a brilliant move what Facebook is doing, but they need to directly couple user value to their data collection efforts. Users absolutely should be able to turn off the collection AND notification.
This level-headed, informed analysis of the situation is exactly why RWW has become one of my favorite tech blogs... keep up the good work.
I concur on the creepy factor. Why should FB know my purchase history?
But you reference other examples that we all have come to accept: DoubleClick and other ad networks' cookie tracking. How about credit card companies? They've got a pretty good read on your shopping habits. Grocery store loyalty cards? They know you're trying lose weight with all those Atkins Diet purchases. Amazon.com? They're not a niche etailer - they know your interests across a whole range of categories.
How about the "Recent Readers" box I'm looking at on the right hand side of this page? There I am. And there's "mickreal", "StanfordRyan" and others. With pictures. THAT'S CREEPY!
So I'm not as perturbed about this as others. I've gotten used to the idea that I'm being tracked. I think the focus should not be on stopping the tracking, but on how to control the data that is collected.
If FB is going to use the info for better targeting, I don't mind. Actual purchase history + demographics is the holy grail of advertisers. If FB can manage the policies regarding use and access to the data, they're on to a big financial model. But they need to be mindful of how the data will be used.
Fb while appearing to listen to members, increasingly appears to be a centralized surveillance system, even with it's refined privacy controls. It relies on most members not bothering to change default settings.
Its great to know that a new innovative idea of this kind has come from a business perspective but however taking in to consideration the personal factor how personal do a user's information remain. Especially after getting to hear that these sites are accessible even on mobiles without internet,GPRS or EDGE everyone would be accessing networking sites more frequently & thus accessing more accounts also. www.modazzle.com?channel=CM&camp=mobnetFB