Saturday, December 1, 2007
Facebook Helps Friends Count Your Money
Facebook now has a feeder that tracks your on-line purchases. And there's nothing you can do about it.


Within the last 10 days, more than 50,000 Facebook members have signed a petition objecting to the new program, which sends messages to users’ friends about what they are buying on Web sites like Travelocity.com, TheKnot.com and Fandango. The members want to be able to opt out of the program completely with one click, but Facebook won’t let them.


The system Facebook introduced this month, called Beacon, is viewed as an important test of online tracking, a popular advertising tactic that usually takes place behind the scenes, where consumers do not notice it. Companies like Google, AOL and Microsoft routinely track where people are going online and send them ads based on the sites they have visited and the searches they have conducted.

But Facebook is taking a far more transparent and personal approach, sending news alerts to users’ friends about the goods and services they buy and view online.

Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research, said she was surprised to find that her purchase of a table on Overstock.com was added to her News Feed, a Facebook feature that broadcasts users’ activities to their friends on the site. She says she did not see an opt-out box.

“Beacon crosses the line to being Big Brother,” she said, “It’s a very, very thin line.”



And what does Facebook have to say for themselves? "You'll get used to it"

“Whenever we innovate and create great new experiences and new features, if they are not well understood at the outset, one thing we need to do is give people an opportunity to interact with them,” said Chamath Palihapitiya, a vice president at Facebook. “After a while, they fall in love with them.”



This is crazy. It's bad enough that they clock you on Facebok, now they monitor you on OTHER websites. First my myspace is deleted, next will be my Facebook page.

Labels:

posted by Sickamore @ 2:44 PM  
3 Comments:
  • At Dec 1, 2007, 3:47:00 PM, Blogger Madden Wachsenhoff said…

    how does this work exactly? I know facebook asks you for certain passwords and the such when you first sign up - I chose not to and just created a basic page... how can they track what I buy on ebay or amazon.com exactly?

     
  • At Dec 1, 2007, 4:04:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Yeah i don't understand how it works either...but uhh...Sick u on Facebook? Lemme add u!

     
  • At Dec 1, 2007, 5:55:00 PM, Blogger Unknown said…

    This is some 21st century bullshit. Well, I think they can only track you if you put your credit card number in your account. To buy "gifts" for your facebook friends. A lame idea, why pay money to send virtual gifts to people?

    I like Myspace better. Facebook is ok though.

     
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