Facebook To Consumers: Stop Whining About Beacon

It was a good thought Facebook. Your Beacon program, which has been criticized from the start, has finally stirred up the ominous user petition demanding an opt-out feature to ensure user privacy. 50,000 users of Facebook signed the petition, complaining that they did not want their purchases on sites like Tavelocity and Gamefly posted in their feed for all their friends to see.

The Beacon program is a program that allows advertising partners of Facebook to determine what kind of traffic they would like to publish in users feeds. Users did not need to be logged in to Facebook for the program to work. The point was essentially to get users to advertise for the companies they do business with, without receiving any reward for doing so. Many people have complained of privacy concerns, saying that this is information that they are not offering themselves but is instead being reported without performance.

I have to agree with the consumers on this one. I don't mind if they keep the Beacon program, but make it an easy opt-out program. As it is now, once you make a purchase (or any other type of transaction that the partner defines) on a partner website, a small box pops up in the bottom corner of your screen letting you know that this information will be published in your feed. Supposedly, there is an option at that point to say "do not publish," but speaking from personal experience, it's not very apparent. That is also the only point at which you can opt out of this information being published.

That is where the controversy starts. People want to be able to either opt-out all together or opt-in. Basically, they want the choice, which as it stands, they do not have. Advertisers have shot back saying that users are willing to publish a plethora of personal information about themselves online, so why should they be unwilling to publish purchases as well.

In my opinion, you should have the option to opt out all together. Although there are some people that are willing to post drunken, half-naked pictures of themselves online, there are many, many more that are not ok with that. Likewise with the purchase advertising of the Beacon program. My biggest complaint with the program is that I do not see any revenue from that advertising. I'm being used by companies to advertise for them, but I'm getting nothing out of it? That's not OK by me.

Facebook Retreats on Online Tracking [NY Times]